Reunion
by sss979
Summary: The Doctor hasn't seen Charlotte Pollard for years, and a lot has changed for both of them since they said their goodbyes. It's been said that love conquers all. But can love conquer the Viyrans?
1. Prologue

A/N: The prologue to this story is mostly for the benefit of Big Finish fans. If you are following me here from the Quiescenary Series (to which this book ties in) and you're not familiar with Big Finish, don't let the prologue scare you into thinking you won't understand this book.

I'm doing something I NEVER do with this book... I'm posting the first chapter before I've finished the last one. I'm doing this because this book has been sitting on my hard drive for a very long time, and unless I get some fresh enthusiasm for it, I'm afraid it might not get done. So please enjoy, and please share your enthusiasm if you do feel it. I need the encouragement on this very old project.

Special thanks to thagrrrl79 for her contributions as a cowriter, and to Howlcastle for the initial spark I needed to start this book, waaaaaaaaay back when I started it.

**PROLOGUE**

The console was humming softly, an ambient sound that Charley had never noticed before in _her _Doctor's Tardis. This room, white-walled and sterile-looking, was still so unfamiliar to her. Gone were the enormous, industrial-meets-gothic designs and architecture of the Tardis she had known. Instead, her surroundings were small and very plain looking in comparison. White and grey, tiled and smooth with few shadows. A small, sophisticated looking console. It looked like an enormous computer, not like the oddly shaped and colored controls of the Tardis she had travelled in for so long. But it was the same Tardis. The same but different. Like the Doctor...

"Hello again."

Charley wasn't expecting a response. She wasn't surprised when she didn't get one. Sentient or not, the ship couldn't actually _talk._ She knew that. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she straightened her posture as she stepped closer, running her hand lightly over the edge of the console.

"I know you're supposed to be... alive or something. In a manner of speaking, anyway. I don't know if that means you can hear me, but right now, I haven't really got anyone else to talk to. So I guess... it's just you and me."

The hum continued. Other than that, the room was silent. Eerily so. She sighed deeply as she continued, watching her hand as it trailed along the controls, careful not to change or press anything. The last thing she needed was to accidentally send them on a collision course with the nearest star.

"He said once that you're timeless," she whispered. "The Doctor, I mean. That you see everything that was and everything that will be just as if it's happening right now. If that's true, then you at least should know who I am. It's not much, I suppose, but it's more than anyone else knows."

She bit her bottom lip, wishing for all the world that she had something - someone - to look at, other than a big grey computer with a clear cylinder in the middle. Something that could respond. Some way to know she was being heard. But there was nothing.

She sighed as she leaned forward, letting her blonde hair fall in her face as she took in a deep breath and continued quickly, without thinking. What did it really matter if anyone was listening? Probably better if she wasn't heard. It didn't matter. She still needed to talk, to get it all off of her chest before it ate her alive.

"I'm so alone here. Everything is so unfamiliar and I... well, I can't exactly talk to the Doctor. Even if it didn't violate the laws of space and time, what would I say? Yes, Doctor, someday we're going to fall in love and you're going to..."

She trailed off as the memories hit her, more powerful than she'd been expecting. Trapped in a world of sensory deprivation. The first time she had realized that he loved her... _"I sacrificed myself for you, to save your life! And I did it gladly. I thought I'd never see you again, but it wouldn't matter so long as I knew you were safe."_

_ "I don't understand. You're saying you did care for me after all! That you... loved me?"_

_ "Of course I loved you!" His anger caught her off guard, and she recoiled instinctively. "I _killed _myself for you, didn't I! Of course I loved you. Of course... I love you."_

He'd loved her. He'd never meant to, but he'd fallen in love. And she'd fallen just as hard. Her closest friend. The line between friends and lovers was blurred somewhere in the Divergent Universe...

_"Are you alright?"_

_ "Cold..."_

_ He settled beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. It probably wasn't intended to be a romantic gesture; this was neither the time nor the place for it, out among the rocks and wind. But his solid presence felt good, nonetheless. It felt... reassuring._

_ "Think warm thoughts," he whispered to her._

_ "These stones are hard."_

_ "They're filled with the softest down..."_

_ He'd succeeded in making her smile. "Yes, alright. Swans' down, is it?"_

_ "Of course, nothing but the best."_

_ "That's alright, then." She settled against him, snuggling in closer for warmth. "Good night, Doctor."_

_ "Good night, Charlotte."_

He'd hardly ever called her that...

It was impossible to tell how long they'd been there, in that other universe. Impossible to keep track of how many nights she'd dared to fall asleep in his arms, or very closely under his watch, at the very least. They'd grown comfortable, relaxed to the point of indecency if they were really just friends. Even "just friends" who were in love...

_ "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly dressed for swimming." _

_ "Since when have you needed to be dressed for swimming?" He was already stripping his clothes, puzzled by her dilemma._

_ "Well, I'm hardly going to swim that distance wearing this. It'd be far too cumbersome. And modesty demands I wear a bit more than you did in that fountain in Light City."_

_ He laughed. "Nonsense, Charley, there's not another living soul for miles in any direction. Light years, in fact."_

_ She smiled as she shook her head in disbelief at the fact that he didn't seem to consider himself "another living soul."_

_ "Oh, Doctor."_

She smiled as her memories played out, one after another, vision blurring as her eyes welled up with tears. But they weren't tears of sadness. No, it was joy that filled her, when she thought of those times. The awkwardness and uncertainty of the first time he'd kissed her. _Really _kissed her, properly. The first time he touched her the way that only a lover would...

_ "Enjoying yourself, Charley?" he teased in a low, mischievous voice that let her know he was smiling._

_ She was barely able to squeak out an answer. "Yes. Yes, Doctor. Very much."_

And lying naked in his arms in the warm afterglow...

_ "I've never been in love before. Not like this."_

_ "Well, that's a good feeling, though, isn't it?"_

_ "It is, Charley, but it's also a rather frightening one. Because I know I'll love you forever and for a Time Lord... forever is a very long time." _

In the end, he'd given her a freedom to feel, to be, to love him openly and passionately, that she'd never imagined. She'd hardly even felt embarrassed when C'Rizz had walked in on them.

_"Oh!" _

_ Struggling to pull her top closed with one hand and steady herself on the edge of the console with the other, she was too startled by the intrusion to even notice at first that C'Rizz very distinctly had his head turned in the opposite direction. _

_ "Don't mind me; I'm not looking. Just needed to get my notebook."_

The fact that neither he nor the Doctor had flinched - only a smile and a respectful pause while the Eutermesan grabbed what he'd come for and left again - had made it clear that it was nothing that he hadn't already known. It should've mortified her. But it hadn't. Somehow, it had still felt just as good, just as right.

She could feel the tears on her cheeks as she ran her hand lightly over the edge of the Tardis console. A different console. A different Tardis, and a different Doctor. But still the same. At least, someday he would be. Someday, in a world that she would never see again.

"This all feels so foreign," she sniffled, wiping the tears away roughly. "Nothing's the same. Even the Doctor, he's not... He's not the same."

She would never forget her shock. When the door to the Tardis opened and a man she'd never seen before stepped out.

_"I'm sorry. I was expecting someone else."_

_ "Someone else? I hadn't realized dimensionally transcendental vehicles disguised as police boxes were quite so commonplace."_

The man she travelled with now was drastically different. He was a man with flamboyant clothes and tight blonde curls. A man who was openly arrogant and superior in a way that sometimes frustrated her and other times made her laugh. But he was a man who didn't love her, who didn't even know her.

_ "Why are you looking at me like that?"_

_ "I'm trying to work out what to make of you... Charlotte. Is that really your name?"_

_ "Yes! Why wouldn't it be?"_

_ "I don't know. Not entirely sure I trust you."_

_ "Oh."_

And in spite of all of that, he was the Doctor.

All that she knew about the Web of Time left her with one burning, painful question. Was it possible that the Doctor - _her _Doctor - could've known all along that she would end up here, with his former self? Could he have known all of this - her daily life now - and never said a thing? She wouldn't have thought him capable of hiding something like that from her. There were so few things in the universe that would truly surprise her anymore, but that would be one of them. The Doctor had many faults. But one thing he was not was a liar.

The other, perhaps more painful question had to do with what he _didn't _know. He'd died; before her very eyes, the ship had crashed. He couldn't have regenerated after an explosion like that; there would have been nothing left. Had he known, in the end, how much she loved him? Had he known that she never would've left him? A lump caught in her throat and she swallowed it down as she brushed her cheeks again.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" she muttered, self-deprecatingly. "I would've left. I _did_ leave."

She lowered her eyes shamefully, longing for a sense of absolution and knowing that this was not the proper confessional booth if she sought an understanding ear. Still, she couldn't stop the words from pouring out.

"I was so... hurt, so angry. All those human emotions I don't imagine you could possibly understand." She glanced again at the time rotor. "After what happened to C'Rizz... the way the Doctor reacted... I don't know why I thought he would react any differently if I left, if I'd died. It was like he never would've thought twice about..."

She trailed off, shaking her head. But he had thought twice. She knew he had. She'd counted down from ten and she'd wanted him to be gone when she'd opened her eyes; she really did. She'd really meant that. But she hadn't thought about what it would be like to go to bed alone that night and realize...

"I didn't even say a proper good bye. I didn't tell him that..." She swallowed hard. "But he knew. I'm sure he knew. At least he will. Someday..."

"Know what?"

The voice behind her was startling, and she wiped the tears away quickly as she turned to face the curly haired man in the doorway. "Doctor," she greeted with a forced smile. "Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Yes, I know." He eyed her suspiciously as he stepped closer. "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, just... myself."

"I see. Regular habit of yours, is it?"

"Sometimes," she admitted.

"Well, as long as you're awake, we might as well find something interesting to look at, don't you think?"

"Of course," she answered. "I'll just... go get dressed."

She could feel his eyes - suspicious and slightly concerned - following her as she left the console room. A few steps down the hallway, she paused at the door that led to his room. The hallway looked different, but she knew that was where his room should be. At least, in her own time it was where his room should be...

"If you can hear me..." She touched her hand to the door and felt it warm under her hand. The living ship, warm and responsive. She took a breath, and let it out slow as she tried again. "I know you don't like me very much, but we have something in common. We both love the Doctor. So if you can understand any of this - anything at all - then please... Just tell him that I love him."

She let the words linger in the stillness as she lowered her hand to her side again, and slowly continued down the hallway to her own room.


	2. Chapter One

**CHAPTER ONE**

"Just tell him that I love him..."

The Doctor's eyes opened abruptly, his lungs drawing in a sharp breath of cold, scentless air. In the fog between asleep and awake, he wouldn't have been able to tell if the voice he'd just heard was real or only an illusion if he hadn't known, for a fact, that he was alone here. Always alone. Completely alone.

Lying perfectly still for a moment, he let his eyes close again, let his senses come awake, one by one. Finally, he turned onto his back, staring for a moment at the ceiling above him, then the cold, empty room around him. He'd been asleep for nearly six hours. It was more than he needed. But there was simply no reason to get up.

_ "Nothing's the same..."_

His brow furrowed as he sat up, setting his feet on the icy floor. The temperature jolted his senses, distracting him from the whisper that came from nowhere. How far must they have drifted away from any sun for it to be this cold in the Tardis? He'd better go check on that.

_"I'm not exactly dressed for swimming..."_

The voice was distinct, if not familiar. It was distinctly not his own. The whisper of a memory, without a context, without a meaning. He couldn't place it. Right now, he didn't particularly care to try. His memories as of late were filled with nothing but darkness and loneliness. It was better to live in the moment, and try to forget that there was a past. Or a future. It wasn't hard once he'd gotten used to it.

_"I'm sorry. I was expecting someone else."_

He stood, dressed sloppily - just for warmth, really - and headed for the control room to check on that missing sun. He must have been tired when he'd parked the Tardis the night before, to not think about that. Not that he gave anything much thought nowadays. Travel itself had more or less lost its meaning. How long had he been drifting in the emptiness of space now? A week? A month? He'd lost track.

And he didn't care.

The twin bottles of malt whiskey on the console - both empty - made him reconsider his state of mind from the night before. Not tired. Drunk. He remembered now. Only vaguely. It took a hell of a lot to get him drunk. But he'd been trying _really _hard. Again.

_ "Best friend? I'm flattered."_

_ "One day we will be. The very best of friends."_

He frowned as he pushed the bottles aside. One of them fell, and tumbled off the end of the console before shattering on the floor with a deafening crash. He ignored it as he checked the coordinates. "What do you want?" he demanded of no one in particular. Maybe he was still drunk. Was six hours enough to sleep off two bottles of whiskey? Hard to gauge. He didn't feel drunk. At least, not unless he counted the voices in his head.

_"Very impressive how you got the Tardis to bring us straight here. It's the first trouble free trip I've had with you."_

His hands rested on the controls for a long moment as he stopped, and listened to his own wandering thoughts. The ambiguous lines would've been less disturbing if he could have just placed them. They were like memories, but of scenes he hadn't truly experienced. He'd felt it before, he realized slowly. The formation of a cyclical timeline - not quite a paradox, but a change in his own timestream. Someone was messing with the Web of Time. His memories adjusting to fit a new recorded history. _His _new recorded history.

Oh, that was just what he needed.

It wasn't anything he'd done; that was for damn sure. He hadn't done much of anything since he'd last left Earth. Left Susan. Left the Daleks and the Monk and the dead bodies - if there even _were _bodies because at least in Lucie's case, he was sure there wasn't - of friends and family. It had been the last in a long line of events that had slowly worn down not only his hope, but his will to have hope.

_ "So, where to now?"_

_ "I think it would be best if I took you home, young lady. Where and when?"_

_ "Um..."_

The whisper of a memory, however vague, was enough to interrupt his thoughts.

_ "I'll make it easy for you. You're clearly English and you're clearly from the first half of the 20__th__ century - all that 'operator' business on the phone."_

_ "If you say so."_

_ "What do you mean, if I say so?"_

_ "Well... that's the trouble you see. I can't remember."_

_ "You're saying you've lost your memory?"_

That was his own voice - lines he'd never said, but remembered saying all the same. An interference in his past. He probably wouldn't have even noticed it, would've never thought it the least bit strange except that he, unlike most creatures in the universe who compensated for paradoxes as if they were a natural occurrence, knew what was _supposed _to be. He knew the fixed points in the universe. He knew when they shifted. He knew when strands of the Web of Time were rewritten.

_"I loved you..."_

He stopped as he slowly, unsurely, recognized the voice.

_"Let me tell you a story."_

"Charley?"

He frowned as he looked around the console room for anything that might have triggered memories of her. It had been a long time since he'd left her. Too long. So much pain and heartbreak since then. So much death...

But the memories were coming faster now, clearer, more intense. Memories he'd never lived, but had all the same. And it was her voice. He knew her voice...

_ "You meet a girl on the R-101 airship. She's meant to die in the crash."_

_ "If this is something in my future, I don't think -"_

_ "But you save her. And that tears at the fabric of time itself, the Web of Time. But in a way, you don't care. Because you're in love with her."_

_ "Sounds like I became reckless in my old age."_

_ "Isn't that what old age is for?"_

He stood very still as the whispers took shape, memories he'd forgotten somehow, unbidden, flooded back to his mind. A million snapshots. _"__For some reason, you seem to be very well aware of the delicacy of the Web of Time. And I know for a fact that you aren't stupid!"_ A thousand scenes. _"__Who are you and what are you doing here!"_ A hundred conversations and endless, endless whispers. _"Even if it didn't violate the laws of space and time, what would I say?"_ Bleeding, one into another.

_"What about C'Rizz?"_

His mind stopped on a familiar scene. This one, he knew. He knew how it had begun and he knew how it ended. And he swallowed hard as he took a step back from the console, as if touching it somehow made the forbidden memory more real.

_"What about him?"_

_ "Won't he...? I mean, he'll be expecting you back."_

_ The Doctor chuckled. "Charley, I would be very surprised if C'Rizz doesn't already know exactly what was on both our minds when you asked me to help take your clothes off."_

_ She blushed slightly. "Well I, for one, was thinking that even a contortionist would have a great deal of trouble getting out of that boned corset while tied up inside of it."_

_ "And that's _all_ you were thinking?" he teased._

He clamped down his mind, blocking out that memory before it could progress any further. For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Defenses raised, confusion swirling, the Doctor took a moment to organize his thoughts before he turned away from the console and headed up the steps, to the left, into the hallway. At the end of the room, to the right, he threw the door open with little regard for the hinges. Dark and silent, just as it should be. The center of the confusion. The eye of the storm.

He stepped forward slowly, into the empty room. There wasn't much left. She'd packed before she'd gone. Not that she'd had much to take with her. She'd never been one to accumulate trinkets and trophies from the places they'd visited. So many places...

_ "Of course! July 11, 1982 Italy beats Germany 3-1 in the World Cup Final!"_

_ "Oh. That's football, isn't it? Oh, I thought something important had happened, like Italian spacemen landing on the moon..."_

But that had all ended. He remembered very clearly how it had ended. He didn't have to step into this room to remember that. It was always there, lingering in his thoughts, a perplexity of anger and grief and sadness.

_"I'm bailing out." _

She'd walked away from him. She'd even left a note, asking him to never look for her. And those memories were still crystal clear; they hadn't changed. Even standing in this room, they hadn't changed. So what had?

_ "I'm from your future."_

The realization hit him like a head-on collision. A former incarnation. These memories - the lines of dialogue, the fragmented thoughts - they belonged to an earlier version of himself. She had met a former incarnation!

_ "When I heard the Tardis coming back to me I thought, 'Thank God you're safe!' But it wasn't you, it was..."_

_ "It was me."_

Awestruck, he stared at the empty room around him. But it still didn't make any sense. Why now? What had triggered his memory now, and all at once? A smell? A thought? A vague dream? It wasn't the first time he'd gained new memories long after the fact. Every time he crossed his own timestream, he did that. But this was new. It was different. This was... repressed.

_"You really don't get it, do you? I saw you die! I was grieving!"  
"Grieving?"_

_ "You stupid man, don't you understand! I wanted you back. More than anything I wanted you back and to have told you would've been to let you go. I wasn't ready for that. I'm still not."_

He frowned as that memory played itself out, and then stopped abruptly. It was wrong. It felt wrong. That man who looked like him - a previous incarnation of him, but still him - wasn't right. There was something about his thoughts that felt foreign. Subtle, but noticeable. That wasn't him. So why was that memory surfacing at all?

"It's not my memory," he muttered quietly, under his breath. Come to think of it, he didn't feel particularly connected to _any _of these new memories. Like none of them were real. But then, where were they all coming from?

_ "You know, the Viyrans are very secretive about their work. It's part of their mission to make sure that no one knows about the viruses. So if anyone does get to know anything -"_

_ "They kill them?" The Doctor eyed her warily. "You're here to kill me?"_

_ "No." Charley stared back at him with tears in her eyes. "Oh, Doctor, no. They have ways of altering people's memories."_

"Ah, now that makes more sense," he muttered under his breath. He didn't _like _it, but it made sense. He didn't remember because he wasn't supposed to remember.

He turned away from the room that had once been occupied by Charlotte Pollard and headed back to the control room. "That would mean this is _your _doing," he addressed the console from the top of the stairwell. "Your Matrix, your memory, not mine."

No answer came. He wasn't expecting one. It wasn't as if the Tardis had a language center of its own, after all. He descended slowly, eyes narrowed at the time rotor as if he could somehow address the Tardis directly through it. But if she understood anything, it was only the emotion behind his words. And there was certainly emotion there. He could hear the accusatory tone in his own voice, building with every step, and he did nothing to curb it.

"But why tell me now? Why tell me at all? If I allowed my memory of her to be erased completely, that was probably for the best. Why bring it up now?"

_ "If you can hear me... Just tell him that I love him."_

Silence lingered in the chilled room around him as those words settled. He could see her, in his mind. He could feel her presence, her sadness and grief. He let it pass over him, through him, before he finally responded.

"Why?" he demanded, stepping closer to the console. "You don't like Charley; you never have. Why go through all this trouble to deliver a message from her?"

The answering thought was a memory much more recent. There should have been nothing in particular about last night that made it different from all the rest. Loneliness and emptiness, drunkenness and sadness. But for some reason, last night had been an end point. In a fury, he'd ripped through the control room like a tornado, leaving a mess of tattered books and broken trinkets in his wake.

He'd found his way to his bedroom, to Charley's - the only one he'd retained when he'd jettisoned the rest. His companions were gone - all of them. They all left, all perished in the end. He was always left alone. But last night, he'd regretted getting rid of their rooms. He would've much rather they had still been there, so that he could've ripped them to shreds as well.

The furious, drunken stupor had ultimately left him sobbing impotent tears on the steps he now found himself standing on. He'd been thinking of Lucie, and her last moments. He'd been thinking of Susan. He wouldn't even let himself acknowledge that he'd been thinking of Charley.

But the Tardis knew.

_"I was so... hurt, so angry. All those human emotions I don't imagine you could possibly understand."_

"Stop it," he warned, glaring at the time rotor.

_" After what happened to C'Rizz... the way the Doctor reacted... I don't know why I thought he would react any differently if I left, if I'd died."_

"I said _stop_!"

He shut down his mind hard, blocking her out, silencing the communicative efforts of a time ship that had no language, only emotion and memory_._ Endless memory. Memories he didn't want and things he didn't want to know.

"Why now!" he yelled angrily, storming down the rest of the steps. "Why do you have to do this _now_? You could've picked any moment, any time in these past years. If she ever said any of those words, then you've always known it. You could've told me when I needed to hear it, when I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to move on, when I still loved her. You could've told me anytime so why now!"

But the Tardis had gone silent. There was no thought, no stirring, no answer. Feeling the impotent anger well up inside of him, the Doctor smashed the side of his fist against the console. But it did nothing except hurt his hand. "Answer me, damn it!"

But there was nothing.

Frustrated and furious, the Doctor reached out and grabbed the empty bottle from the step beside him and threw it as hard as he could at the time rotor console. It hit with a crack and the bottle shattered, raining down even more broken glass on the floor and on him. As the rage subsided into shock and then numbness, he turned and slid down until he was sitting against the pillar, silent sobs wracking his narrow frame as he clung to his knees.

"Fine," he finally whispered with heartbroken resolve. "You win. Whatever you want, you win."


	3. Chapter Two

**CHAPTER TWO**

It was not the warmest "welcome home" the Doctor had ever received. Nor was it the most hostile. It was about what he'd expected. He'd been warned - through the grapevine - about the current Castellan. They'd never had the pleasure of actually meeting, but he had been a close friend of Vansell before the CIA Coordinator's poorly timed coup attempt and self-sacrificial death. The association alone was probably enough to put him and the Doctor on opposite sides. And if he, as Castellan, was even half as heavy-handed as the CIA in general, they were going to be off to an even shakier start.

He stood at the console and waited, numbly watching on the scanner as the chancellery guard took up position outside of his Tardis. They were ready to encase him and his ship in a protective bubble if he made any sudden moves. But he had no interest in causing trouble right now. Frankly, he had no energy for it.

The door creaked as it opened, and he cast a quick glance over the surrounding guards. He didn't speak. He simply put his hands up in an act of surrender - he wasn't here to argue with stazer pistols - and located the Castellan, standing on the steps above the rest of them in his long, brown and gold robes. The perfect picture of Time Lord authority and poise. The Doctor was suddenly reminded of all the reasons why he hated coming here.

"Lord Doctor," he greeted after clearing his throat. "To what do we owe the privilege?"

"I'm here to visit the archives," the Doctor answered flatly. "As is my right as a Time Lord. I trust the warm welcome is your way of making sure I say hello first?"

The Doctor looked away to cast a glance around the room and the guns all pointed in his direction, then back up at the Castellan as he stepped down and came closer.

"What could you possibly want from the archives?"

"That's between me and the Matrix Coordinator." The Doctor lowered his arms as the Castellan moved past the line of fire.

"I am entrusted with the safety of the Citadel and you are rightly classified as a threat to society. Your being here is in and of itself very much my concern."

The Doctor sighed. "Listen, whatever you may think of me, I'm still a Time Lord. My access to the Matrix was guaranteed the moment I entered the Academy. Even you can't revoke it without a damn good reason."

"A Time Lord you may be, Doctor - though I'm not entirely sure why they let you keep the title. But the last I heard, you'd been expelled from this universe."

The Doctor frowned. "Not expelled; I left willingly. And you should really keep up with current events. I've been back for quite a while now. I'm surprised your friends at the CIA hadn't mentioned it."

"Don't flatter yourself, Doctor. I have no interest in following your exploits. My only reason for giving you a second thought is when you happen to materialize in the center of my Citadel."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, let's not get territorial. Really, there's no call for it. Either let me pass or arrest me."

"You think I'm here to arrest you?"

"I'm sure you can trump up some kind of charge if you're half as creative as your predecessors. So get on with it already."

A moment of tense silence passed between them before the Castellan stepped closer, lowering his voice so that only the Doctor could hear. "I will let you pass, Doctor."

"How refreshing."

"But I want you to be well aware that I am watching you."

"That's really not necessary, but if it makes you feel better..."

"Believe me when I tell you that if I had my way, you would be divested of your Tardis and banned from Gallifrey."

The Doctor actually smirked at that, in spite of his general ill humor at this whole charade. "Divested of my Tardis?" he mocked. "You weren't the ones who gave it to me in the _first _place."

The Castellan bristled, and glared at him even harder. "I'll have you know that -"

"Listen, Castellan, as much as I'm enjoying this little chat - and really, I am - I'm kind of on a tight schedule, so if you don't mind." He nodded toward the guards who were still watching him closely. "Announce my arrival if you'd like, escort me if you must, but I'd like to speak to the Matrix Coordinator." His eyes narrowed, and everything pleasant dropped from his voice. "Presently."

The man was sizing him up. Some other time, it might have been fun to push his buttons just to see what kind of reaction he could get. The Doctor considered it with that tired part of his mind that mused about "could be" and "almost was." He played out all the possibilities, the smart remarks, the look of fury that would cross the man's face as he tried (unsuccessfully) to trump the Doctor's witty retorts with the sheer, breathtaking awe of his authority. There was a time when the Doctor would have loved to see it, when he would've dispatched this man with a few cheeky lines and gleefully stepped over him to get to where he was going.

But right now, he was just too damn tired to find enjoyment in the game.

Unfortunately, he realized, that meant that he was playing into the Castellan's hand. He was sending the man on a power trip, and it wasn't going to end well for either of them. With a purely internal sigh, the Doctor straightened his posture and faked a smile, clasping his hands behind him.

"Perhaps I'll just go drop in on President Romana instead? Say hello, catch up on old times."

The Castellan laughed, clearly as confused as he was caught off guard. "You must be joking."

"No, why? Do I look like I'm joking?"

"The Madame President is far too busy to -"

"Oh, she'll make time for me," the Doctor interrupted. "Cup of tea, friendly chat about foreign affairs. By the time I'm done talking to her, I'll probably have no need of the Matrix archives! See, I had thought it wouldn't be good to interrupt her but you're absolutely right that she would definitely want to see me. I'm so glad you suggested it! I'll wait right here in my Tardis until it's convenient for her."

The Castellan's eyes were wide as the Doctor stepped back and pushed the door open again. "Wait, I -!"

"No rush, I'll be right here."

"Doctor!"

And with that, the Doctor closed the door behind him, leaving the bewildered man standing amidst his guards outside. No doubt he was trying to determine what to do now. The Doctor watched him on the scanner as he exchanged a few words with his guards, then stormed past them and out of the Tardis berthing bay. In spite of himself, the Doctor gave a slight smile, knowing full well that when the man returned, it would be on a very short leash and with the order to escort him to the Matrix archives. Until then, the Doctor set about cleaning up the glass that was still broken around the console.

*X*X*X*

Matrix Coordinator Marstis had known the Doctor since he'd entered the Academy as a surprisingly intuitive student with ambitions that were better left unspoken. He had been clever, though not exceptionally so. What was unique about him among all of Marstis' pupils was his ability to learn by experience, and to translate that experience for the education (or manipulation) of others. Marstis had known from the very start that the Doctor would be something different, something unique in the history of all of Gallifrey. And unlike many who had considered this a horrible, scandalous thing, Marstis had anticipated it with excitement and expectation. In a way, he still did, all these years later.

The scowling Castellan who escorted the Doctor into the Matrix did not trust the Doctor. It was no surprise; the man was a politician. Marstis himself, as a member of the High Council, had just as much reason to loathe the Doctor's interference in Gallifrey's affairs. But unlike the others, Marstis considered him harmless. Not because he _couldn't _destroy the very fabric of time if he so desired, but because he simply didn't desire to do.

A child of the so-called "renegade generation," schooled among so many others who would go on to cut ties with Gallifrey completely - Morbius, the Master, the Monk, Rani - the Doctor had, in many ways, been doomed from the start. But in spite of his nature, and in spite of his nurture, there was one thing he had never been guilty of and that was treason. He was a renegade and a rebel, yes. But in the end, his heart belonged to Gallifrey. His minor infringements - and even not-so-minor ones - against the Non-Interference Policy never amounted to any deliberate attempt to damage or disregard the Web of Time. And while his Tardis was cut off from the Matrix - a breach of protocol at the very least - Marstis had no reason to deny him access to the data banks.

"Lord Doctor," he greeted with a smile as the small crowd entered the archive room. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Coordinator Marstis," the Doctor answered with a polite smile of his own, offering a hand in greeting. Startled by the gesture, it took Marstis a moment to recall the desired response. He tentatively reached out and clasped the Doctor's hand in the Earth custom, noting the look of disdain on the Castellan's face. The Doctor turned to look over his shoulder at his escort. "Thank you, we'll be fine now."

With a hard look and a tight jaw, the Castellan waited for a nod of agreement from Marstis before he turned away and led his guards out of the room. The Doctor watched him go, then gave a tired sigh.

"Much better."

"Making friends with the new Castellan, I see?"

"Something like that."

There was something very different about the Doctor, and Marstis noticed it immediately. It was in his eyes. The bright flame that had been there in every one of his incarnations was only smoldering now, as if it were in danger of going out altogether. As he looked away, down the endless aisles of archived data - a hundred million years of past, present, and future - there was something about him that seemed very empty.

"I must say that your presence here is a bit of a surprise, Lord Doctor."

"Is it? How so?"

"I was under the impression you were still in the Divergent Universe."

The Doctor's eyes glazed, and his voice was noticeably distant as he began again. "No, I've been back for a few years now."

"Yes, well, no surprise I missed your return, I suppose. I've been quite busy tidying up in other areas lately."

"Or maybe it's been a few centuries... I can't quite recall."

Marstis frowned at the distance in the Doctor's eyes and in his voice. It was as if he hadn't even heard a word of Marstis's response. Then, suddenly, he shook off the memories and continued in a lighter, but forced tone. "Well, a few years relative Gallifreyan time, anyway. Quite a lot longer for me."

"Oh?"

"Strange thing, being on a timeline where your biological awareness of time is altered. Best I can tell, we spent twenty years or so in the Divergent Universe. Didn't feel like it. Didn't feel like anything, really. No time. But I did spend six hundred years on the planet Orbis after I came back. And I felt every minute of that. The funny thing is, it seems only a year or two of Gallifreyan time passed in those six hundred years. I'm not exactly sure how I got disconnected from the timeline..."

Marstis raised a brow, but let him ramble until he finally trailed off. "My apologies, Lord Doctor. You sound as if you've had quite a bit of trouble lately."

"Oh, no need for apologies. It was a pleasant six hundred years, all things considered."

"I see." Marstis hesitated for a moment, but when the Doctor didn't continue, finally cleared his throat. "So how may I be of assistance? I am assuming this is not simply a social call."

"No," the Doctor agreed. "Sorry, I don't want to take up much of your time. I'm here because I'm... looking for someone."

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"She'll have a very peculiar time signature. Charlotte Pollard."

Marstis nodded slowly as the Doctor continued. He should've known it would be her.

"Origin Earth, Humanian era, April 15th 1912 to October 5th, 1930. Or thereabouts. If you can just point me in the right direction..."

"Well, of all the people you have traveled with, she will certainly be one of the easiest to find in the Matrix. You are right in that she has a very peculiar time signature. A bit of an anomaly."

"Yes, she was that."

Marstis nodded. "Do you have a starting point? Or are you simply planning to follow her entire life from start to finish?"

"If I have to, yes."

Marstis laughed. "Doctor, you can't seriously expect to find one particular transient signature in the plethora of Matrix information, no matter how peculiar!"

"I have to, Marstis. This is important."

Marstis eyed him for a long moment. The words, as cold and unfeeling as they sounded, were filled with a need much deeper than his tone betrayed. With some hesitation, Marstis nodded slowly. "Doctor, you do know that your time stream and hers do not run parallel..."

The Doctor raised a brow. "Really, Marstis? I thought you weren't keeping tabs on me."

"I wasn't," he answered honestly. "But on Charlotte Pollard?"

The Doctor frowned. "There's nothing peculiar about Charley. Not anymore."

"Perhaps not. But at one time, she created a lot of chaos in the Matrix. It's part of my job to make sure that doesn't happen again."

"And might it?" the Doctor pressed, watching him intently. "Her paradox was resolved when she was written into events in the Web of Time. I know; I was there."

"Her paradox was resolved, as you say. But just as her time signature remained unique, even until now, it predisposed her to future anomalies."

"What sort of anomalies?"

"As I've said, her time stream does not run parallel to yours."

"Yes, she met my former incarnation; I already know that."

Marstis was momentarily stunned. Then, he frowned. "Who told you?"

The Doctor sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, old friend."

Marstis watched him for a long moment, then nodded slowly as he considered his next words. "Doctor, as a Time Lord, you are allowed free and open access to the Matrix. As a former president, that right is even more substantial. Far be it from me to prevent you from accessing any information you wish to know. But I ask you to consider that she remains, as much as ever, a fragile strand in the Web of Time. Are you quite sure you want to bring her into your life a third time?"

The emptiness in the Doctor's eyes grew darker, just for a moment. Then, the tiniest lick of flame sparked out of the dying ember. Anger, perhaps. Determination, to a certainty. "I'm not leaving until I find her, Marstis."

Very slowly, Marstis nodded. Then he squared his shoulders and gave a pleasant, formal smile. "Then my services are at your disposal, Lord Doctor. I only hope I can point you in the right direction."


	4. Chapter Three

**CHAPTER THREE**

"Are you quite alright?"

The voice startled him, but only for a moment and only because he'd been half-asleep. He drew in a deep, cleansing breath as he stretched his arms above his head and smiled politely at the intruder. "Madame President," he greeted. "I didn't expect to see you here. Come to check up on me?"

She smiled back, comfortably, and he relaxed, reassured that she was here because she wanted to be, not because she felt she needed to be. "Coordinator Marstis tells me you've been in here for a very long time."

"A few days. And not here the entire time, not really. The Matrix isn't exactly the most comfortable place for a nap, what with all the jabbering voices that come and go."

"You seem to have found a nice quiet spot."

"D'you like it?" the Doctor asked, smiling as he gestured around the enormous, empty, grey room. It was as plain and dull as it was large, with an endless table that seemed to be littered with papers written in freehand Gallifreyan. "My own design."

"Of course it is." Romana smirked. "Your own private corner of the Matrix."

He raised a brow. "Is that disapproval I hear?"

"Hardly. Under the circumstances, I think I'd do the same."

"Dangerous words, coming from the Madame President," the Doctor smiled back. "Particularly when uttered inside of the greatest repository of knowledge in the universe."

Romana turned and leaned on the counter beside him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Coordinator Marstis said you were not yourself," she said, studying him curiously. "Though to see you now, I can't imagine why he felt that way. Taking charge of your surroundings and working yourself into exhaustion... All seems very 'Doctor' to me."

"Mmm."

He looked away from her, back to the papers littered across the tabletop. Funny, in a way. He could've conjured up holographic projections and neuropathic recording devices, but there was a certain tangibility to pen and paper that always made him feel... secure. Not unlike this place. The Matrix was a data center. To enter it was to conjure up a virtual world where the only static image was the one the user - or the person who had placed him inside - established. The Matrix was fluid and full of the voices of data recorders, designed for quick and easy retrieval of endless information. But the information he sought was neither quick nor easy to access.

The very first thing he'd done was to find an unused corner of space and construct a room for himself that was subject to the laws of five dimensional physics. It seemed a senseless gesture. It was possible to exist inside of the Matrix almost indefinitely. In here, he was an energy signature written onto a data core. He needed nothing to supplement his existence. But placing himself inside of a section in which there were things like time and space, he became subject to them. He needed things like food and, more importantly, rest. And he knew he wasn't getting enough of it.

His energy was sapped. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so simply tired. The soreness in his body - nearly a week with only catnaps here and there when he popped out of the Matrix to check a reference with Coordinator Marstis - was nothing in comparison to the exhaustion in his mind. He was having trouble thinking straight. And for him, it was an unusual feeling.

"I understand you're looking for Charlotte Pollard."

He glanced up and eyed Romana warily, searching for a measure of the disapproval he couldn't hear in her tone. But he found nothing, no hint of her reaction to that simple fact.

"Yes," he finally answered her.

"Care to tell me what you've found?"

"I have nothing to hide. Certainly not from you. But why the interest?"

She smiled. "I know you, Doctor. And let's face it - your attention span rarely lasts three hours, much less three weeks."

"Is that how long it's been?" he asked in wonder. Apparently his estimate on how long he'd been inside the Matrix was a bit shallow. "I had no idea..."

"What have you been doing in here all this time? Surely it shouldn't take three weeks to track down one unique energy signature."

The Doctor sighed. "Yes, you'd think it would be easy, wouldn't you?"

"But?"

"But it's not a simple matter of following her trail from point A to point B." He leaned back and stretched before he folded his hands behind his head. "She's all over the time continuum. It's like trying to get a complete picture with five hundred pieces of a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle."

"Why? Even if she's travelling through time, she shouldn't be _this _difficult to track."

"Yes, but that's just it. I don't know how much she actually _is _travelling in time. There's no trace of her in the Vortex - at least none that I've found. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Any place she goes where there doesn't happen to be a Tardis in range of recording, well..."

"And if she _is _travelling through time, you must also determine in what order the appearances go. I see."

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw her watching him as warily as he had first regarded her. Perhaps, even more so. And perhaps she had a reason. He hadn't seen her, hadn't been back to Gallifrey, since she'd sent him on his chosen path with a warning never to come back. The Castellan had no doubt voiced his concern loudly. And Romana was ultimately responsible for the wellbeing of Gallifrey, and all of Time, for that matter.

He forced a reassuring smile as he spoke in a low tone. "Romana, you know that I wouldn't have come back to this universe - and certainly not to Gallifrey - if I posed any threat to the Web of Time."

"Oh, I know, Doctor. The CIA informed me the moment you returned from the Divergent Universe." She lowered her voice and continued under her breath. "And I think they knew even before then."

The Doctor smiled. "Keeping a close eye on me, are they?"

"Not particularly. No more than usual, anyway." She hesitated for a long moment, then continued in a softer tone. "Though I did hear about what happened with the Daleks."

He drew in a slow breath and folded his hands, staring blankly at the pages spread out in front of him. He'd been wondering how long it would take before that came up.

"I just wanted to say, in person, that I'm very sorry. About Lucie Miller. And about..." She didn't finish. She didn't need to do. The memories were all fresh as soon as she bridged the subject, no matter how soft her tone. As if she could see how much pain she was causing him, she mercifully stopped. "Well, you know."

"Yeah."

She lowered her voice even further as she set a hand on his shoulder, a breach of protocol and a much-needed gesture of comfort. He kept his eyes turned away from her.

"If there's anything I can do..."

The Doctor's jaw tightened, and he swallowed the lump in his throat, forcing the memories back into the darkness in his mind. Back down where they could do no harm. He was a different man now than he had been a year ago, even a month ago. This time, the Daleks had scarred him, personally and deeply. And he didn't think he would ever be quite the same.

"So she was working for the Viyrans," Romana said, finally interrupting the silence.

The Doctor drew in a quick breath, sat forward again and nodded, grateful for the change in topic. "Yes, the Viyrans. How did you know?"

"Ever since the destruction of the Amethyst Station, the Viyrans have been of some concern to us."

"The Amethyst Station?"

Romana eyed him warily. "You don't know?"

"I'll admit, I've had some trouble finding any information at all on the Viyrans. They seem to be a very secretive race."

"Indeed." She paused for a moment before explaining. "The Amethyst Station was a containment center for viruses. Late period Daleks invaded it during the latter 36th Century Carponian Era. The station exploded, releasing the viruses to spread all over the galaxy." She paused again. "You're _sure _you don't know any of this?"

"Should I?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she continued her explanation. "Officially, the Viyrans are neutral cataloguers - a status which protects them from intergalactic laws pertaining to the genocide of the peoples on any planets they deem infected by the diseases they're trying to contain. They're also protected by the Great Armistice treaty, which states that none may interfere with their operation.But just because they're not exterminating entire populations for personal gain doesn't mean that they're not a matter of concern to us."

"What concern?"

"The explosion at the Amethyst station caused a significant disruption in the Web of Time. All of which _you _had nothing to do with, I'm sure."

His eyes narrowed slightly. She was watching him for a reaction, out of the corner of her eye. But he had nothing to hide. "If I did, I don't remember it."

"Of course not," she sighed. "In any case, the Viyrans, in cleaning up the damage, may be part of the solution to the initial problem of sickness being spread across the galaxies, but their cleanup efforts do not take into account the necessity of preserving the original timeline. Reconstructions of fixed points are long and tedious, Doctor. And we've had to do a number of them to set right the cleansing efforts of the Viyrans."

"You seem to know a lot more about them than what I've been able to find," the Doctor said with curiosity. "Is that simply because I haven't looked hard enough yet?"

"You have met them before, if that's what you're asking. At least twice."

"Then why don't I remember?"

"Why don't you remember traveling with Charley as your younger self?"

"Fair point."

"The question you _should _be asking is whether Charley is still with them."

"You think she's not?"

"I'm not certain why she would've gone to work for them in the first place. But I can tell you she's probably not traveling in time."

"Why do you say that?"

"The Viyrans' time travel techniques - if they could even be called that - are very primitive. They use a form of trans-temporal communication with their earlier or later selves rather than any sort of actual matter transport. If Charley's energy signature is scattered here and there about the Vortex, it didn't get there on a Viyran ship."

"Hmm..."

As the Doctor pondered that thought quietly, Romana shifted her weight onto her arms and hopped up onto the table. She crossed her legs elegantly under her robes as she watched him. "How did you two become separated in the first place?"

"That's the thing; I don't really know." With a sigh, he sat back and gave her a tired glance. "She was... We got separated during a skirmish with the Cybermen. I remember that much. But then she somehow came into contact with one of my former incarnations. Sixth, I think. Though I still don't remember."

"What _do _you remember?"

"Flashes, voices... Like ghosts in my mind. That feeling of déjà vu, but not really knowing what triggered it."

"That's not very helpful."

"I can hear bits and pieces, fragments of conversations. A startled look on her face, a laugh. But there's something... blocking my memory. Shutting me out."

"Well, for you to be here at all, the memory must be repairing. Otherwise you'd never know it was different at all."

He was quiet for a moment, considering. Then, he shook his head slowly as he gradually put his thoughts into words. "I just... I felt it shift, long ago; I knew... I could tell something had happened. In my mind, something had happened. I was in the Tardis and..."

"The moment when she met your former self, perhaps," Romana suggested. "Given the amount of time you two spent together, her timeline may have still been linked to yours up until that point."

"But I didn't pay much attention; why bother? The timeline rewrites itself all the time to compensate for tiny changes here and there. I didn't think about it again until just a few days ago, just before I came here."

"What made you think of it?"

"I felt... memories. Just tiny flashes of memories, things I've said and done and... and her."

Romana smiled knowingly. "You I knew Charley before you met her, and you didn't even realize it."

"It's no wonder I couldn't let her die on the R-101. I would've effectively been creating a paradox. I created a paradox that jeopardized the whole of the universe in order to avoid being caught in a much bigger one - figure out _that_ equation!"

Romana smiled knowingly. "It's never simple with you, is it, Doctor?"

"Not by choice, I can assure you. At least, not this time."

She gave a sigh, and shook her head. "I suppose you two were meant for each other."

He didn't answer. Romana turned her attention to the papers spread out on the tabletop. "In spite of all the variables, I'm still quite surprised, considering Charley's... unique time signature, that she's so difficult to locate."

"Her energy signature is dormant while she's in stasis."

"In stasis?"

"That's my best guess, given the variation in her timeline. Especially if she's not time traveling. Unless she somehow turned into a human who can live for fifteen thousand years, they're keeping her asleep." He sighed. "But just gathering information has been a hell of a task. The Viyrans and the Time Lords aren't the best of bedfellows."

"That's putting it mildly. The more we're able to avoid them face to face, the less damage done to the Web of Time. We just run about after them, cleaning up the destruction they leave in their wake. And since their work is protected by the fine print..."

"I have various pieces recorded throughout the timeline where they'vecrossed paths with a Tardis," the Doctor continued. "But even then, it's difficult to tell what order they go in or if she was there. There's only two points in all the timelines I've sifted through so far where she's actually awake and alert when the Viyrans have crossed into the data recovery field of a Tardis."

"Might your own Tardis Matrix be a better place to look for details on your parting of the ways?"

The Doctor glanced up at her. "That would mean relinking the Matrix of my Tardis to Gallifrey."

Romana laughed. "Oh, heaven forbid."

"I did it once, Romana, but those were exceptional circumstances. Besides, it's not the parting of the ways I'm looking for."

"What are you looking for, then? What, _specifically_?"

"I have to find the latest point in the Matrix recording where she shows up. At that point, I can pick up her trail, follow them in the Tardis. A thousand years, if I have to, until she's outside the bounds of all fixed points in the Web of Time."

Romana stared at him. He could sense her apprehension as she played out that scenario in her mind. "Doctor," she said softly, "you know as well as I do that you will not silently follow the Viyrans for a thousand years, watching as they sterilize planet after planet."

"You're wrong." He gave her a hard look. "I will. For Charley, I will."

She hesitated. "Why not simply meet them at that final point recorded in the Matrix? Then there will be no need to follow them. Your intervention would change nothing in the Web of Time and you could trace her backwards from there."

"Romana, have you seen the number of timelines I've been trying to sort through?" He closed the projection and brought up the stacks and stacks of files. "All of them fixed points. One mistake - and while potentially interfering in my own timeline, no less..."

She studied him with interest. "I just find it curious that you're not opting for the hands on approach."

"Which would be?"

"Simply asking them where she is?"

The Doctor looked away.

"If she's with them, rescue her. If she's not, find out when and where they separated."

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

He sighed. It was difficult to admit and even more difficult to explain, but his reasons for putting himself through all of this had more to do with Romana than his own personal preferences. The Viyrans were powerful, and well respected among the major powers. He didn't want to run about wreaking political havoc with them when he'd used Romana's authority to gain access to what information he had. Besides that, Romana was out on a limb, trusting him to be here when the only guarantee they had that he wasn't dangerous was his own word. For once, he was trying to play completely by the rules, for her sake. And that included observance of the Non-Interference Policy, and mandated the effort he was putting into changing the recorded history of the Matrix as little as possible.

"You know, there is another possibility," she said after a moment's pause.

He glanced up questioningly.

"Integrating yourself with the mainframe itself will allow you complete access to the Matrix, including any Tardis presently gathering information, at a thousand times the speed."

"You mean integrating _your_self," he corrected. "The only way to do that is with the Coronet, and the only one authorized to use that is the President."

"Well, anyone else who tried would probably be killed without the proper training on integration technique." She paused, watching him as if to make sure he was understanding her implication. "Unless, of course, he'd used it before. But that would mean he'd have to be a former president."

He raised a brow, amused by her suggestion. "I'm not sure the Council would approve, Madame President. And a breach like that wouldn't go unnoticed for long."

"Unnoticed, no. But if that individual were to work quickly, he might be well enough able to pass into the Vortex in time for it to go unpunished."

He studied her for a moment, curiously. "Why?" he finally asked, point blank. True, it wasn't a terrible risk for her. There was no rule that explicitly stated that _she _was at fault if some poor, suicidal soul decided to try and make use of the Coronet of Rassilon to enter the Matrix. But it was a breach of protocol, nevertheless - and one he'd not asked for.

She smiled softly as she placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Doctor, for you to spend this long sitting in the Matrix, for you to go through all this trouble..."

"But that's not your problem, Romana. It's mine."

"_You're _my problem, as ever," she finally stated, with the full authority of her presidential office behind her. "And you shouldn't travel alone. You really do need someone with you, to keep you out of trouble if nothing else. Charlotte Pollard is obviously the woman who has your hearts."

He was quiet for a moment, then looked away, at the mess of papers and notes.

"So find her," Romana continued softly. "For what it's worth, Doctor - and certainly not in any official capacity - you two have my blessing."

The Doctor nodded slowly. She was right, he could sort through the entire content of the Matrix in a matter of seconds if he integrated with it. It would take him days or weeks more to do it at the rate he'd been going.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Yes. And thank you." He glanced up and placed a hand over hers on his arm. "_Really_, thank you."

"You're welcome," she answered with a warm smile. "Just don't make me regret it."


	5. Chapter Four

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Running. Charley had been running so hard for so long, it was a wonder her legs hadn't given out yet. But the man who was chasing her seemed to be in just as good shape as she'd become over the past six months.

"Stop! Stop her!"

She ducked and swerved through the crowded marketplace, darting past the startled men and women from a thousand different cultures. They were all gathered in this seedy part of town to look for a way off of this planet - this hell hole where the dirtiest deals were made and a pound of flesh might only buy a few minutes of a pilot's time in which to state your case. If you were lucky and depending on whose flesh it was.

"Stop that girl!"

Her flesh seemed to be worth more nowadays than she cared to think about. Luckily, most of these people were too caught up in their own affairs to be troubled with a foot chase that didn't involve them in the slightest. One very good thing about keeping company with intergalactic criminals - everybody pretty much minded their own business when someone was running through the streets screaming, "Stop in the name of all that is good and holy!"

She ducked into one of the tents and vaulted over the low table where some sort of card game had been laid out between four players. It should have been a graceful maneuver, and too quick to even spot. But it was neither of those things. Her foot caught the edge of the table and she only just managed to regain her balance before she stumbled, sprawling, out the other side of the tent. The cries of the furious players followed her, and she could hear the struggle fading into the distance behind her as she sprinted around the corner and suddenly found herself face to face with a single line of three man, all armed to the teeth and all pointing their weapons straight at her.

The grey dust formed a cloud around her as she skidded to a stop, arms flailing to catch her balance. She didn't think. She didn't have time to think. She just yelled the first thing that came to mind.

"Please help me! I can pay you!"

The men exchanged glances, then looked back at her. The slightest nod was all the encouragement she needed. She darted closer, and didn't resist as the man in the center grabbed her by the arm and shoved her roughly into the pitch black tent behind them. She didn't bother trying to look around in the dark. Struggling to quiet her breathing - it sounded deafeningly loud in her ears - she stood just inside the flap and peeked out through the tiny slit, watching as her pursuer rounded the corner and pulled up short just as she did.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"Piss off, mate."

"I can pay you."

"Sorry. We're a first come first serve sorta business."

Charley clenched her teeth as her breathing pattern trembled, then pressed her lips together to force air through her nose. Quieter that way. It meant she could hear better.

"Listen to me." He took a slow step forward, but kept his hands raised in surrender. "Whatever she's promised you, whatever she said, she lied. She has nothing but the clothes on her back and she is a dangerous criminal. If you knew what's best for you, you would hand her over to me right now."

Another exchange of glances. Charley held her breath. _Oh, please... please..._

But then the man's hand was moving, a bit too quickly, and Charley winced at the sound of a deatomizer gun. When she opened her eyes again, she saw only her three "protectors", all calmly exchanging glances again before they replaced their weapons into their belts.

"I hope for your sake, my lady -"

Charley gasped and spun around at the unexpected voice behind her.

"- that the gentleman was incorrect in his accusations. I would hate to think that I have sanctioned the murder of an honest man."

Her eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness in the room. She could make out the vague outline of a figure - male, by the sound of the voice - but it was far too dark to tell if he was human or even humanoid. Still trying to control her breathing, she laughed nervously. "I... I'm sorry. I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Charlotte Agnes and I'm afraid you... you have me at a disadvantage. The last time I was this frazzled while making introductions, I was meeting the emperor of the Daleks. And at least I could _see _him."

"Oh, of course. I'm being rude."

The hiss of a match was followed by a dull, glowing light. The man - basically humanoid in form but with long thin tentacles where his hair ought to be - lit a candle in the center of the table he was seated at. As her eyes adjusted, Charley realized that the room was not really a tent. The wall through which she had entered was made of canvas. But the other three were made of metal scrap - rickety and yet more substantial than most of the structures in the shantytown. The walls themselves weren't what caught her eye, however. It was the mountings _on _the walls that brought her up short.

"Oh! Oh, my."

Surrounding the low-set table in the center of the small room were faces. And not just faces - entire heads. Human heads, among others - at least a dozen of them from races that Charley could not even identify. Their glass eyes stared endlessly into nothingness, their expressions frozen in placid nothingness.

"My eyes prefer the dark," the man said quietly. "Sometimes I forget that my visitors may prefer the light."

Charley stared blankly at him for a moment. He was still apologizing for the low light. Either he was choosing to ignore her horror at the décor or she was doing a better job of hiding it than she thought.

"Oh. Yes. My lights definitely work better in the eyes. I mean, my eyes in the light. Sorry." She laughed again, tightly. "Now it seems I'm the one being rude, stammering about like this. Let me try again. I'm Charlotte Agnes. Charley, to my friends. And you are?"

"Xavier Dawkins Hemmingwarth at your service. You may call me Hem."

"Very nice to meet you, Hem." Slowly, she was regaining her composure, her mind jump starting after the cold shock of her present surroundings. "I hope I haven't caused you any inconvenience. I'm... not from around here. Obviously. I suppose nobody's really from around _here_. Oh, look, now I'm rambling. That man, the one who was chasing me -"

"Was a bounty hunter," Hem interrupted.

Charley blinked in surprise. "You know him?"

"I know his type. And surely you don't think that I'd take a chance that he might be telling the truth about you having no form of payment if I didn't know that you are, shall we say, inherently valuable?"

Charley glanced quickly at the flap leading out to where the three men were standing. "You... knew I was coming, then? To...give the order to your guards to help me before I'd arrived?"

"Oh, nothing so complex as all that," he laughed quietly. There was a sinister tone in his laugh that sent a shiver down Charley's spine. "They are my bondservants, empathically linked to my will. They cannot so much as breathe without my permission."

"I see," she answered cautiously.

"So. Regarding the matter of payment."

She hesitated, cast another glance around at Hem's previous "business dealings", and proceeded with caution. "Before we discuss payment," she said, rolling her shoulders back. "Perhaps we can discuss what, exactly, I'm buying. You strike me as a well connected businessman, and I am in need of more assistance than the simple disposal of a bounty hunter on my tail."

Hem raised a brow, clearly amused by her change of tone and attitude. "I see." He leaned forward, folding his hands calmly on the table in front of him. "Please, go on."

"I want safe passage off of this planet. For me and my... cargo. It's just one box, but I'm afraid it's rather large and delicate. You find me a pilot who's willing to transport me - no names, no questions - and in return, I give you this."

She reached into her pocket and withdrew a slightly glowing stone. It was only the size of her thumbnail, but even so little of the precious metal made Hem's eyes light up ever-so-slightly. A hardened criminal he may be, but a poker player he was not.

"Is that... Jethric?"

"Got it in one."

Hem hesitated a moment more, then steepled his hands and touched his fingertips to his lips. "I have two questions."

"Alright."

"The first is a matter of conditions and the second a matter of principle. First, where is it you - and your cargo - wish to be transported?"

"I'm sorry, but as a matter of principle, that's between me and the pilot."

"You seek a... private ship, then?"

"Emphatically not. In fact, the more passengers the better. More passengers mean more stops and more options should I choose to stay at any of their destinations."

"You do not have a particular destination in mind, then?"

"Right now, my only requirement is that it be far away from here."

"Fair enough." He sat back slightly as he watched her. "My second question... How did you come about such a large amount of Jethric?"

"I should think such a large amount of Jethric would allow me to answer fewer questions."

Hem smiled. "And a rapier wit, no less."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but I'm not so flattered as to allow you to think I don't mean what I say."

"It is stolen, then?"

She paused, weighing her answer carefully. "Yes."

"From the man who sent the bounty hunter after you, no doubt?"

"No doubt."

"What is in your cargo?"

"That is three questions, I'm afraid. I granted you only two."

"You are not a fool. You know that I could order my bondservants to kill you on the spot and take both that lump of Jethric and that rather expensive translation contrivance in your ear."

Charley feigned horror. "Xavier Dawkins Hemmingwarth, I took you for a man of principle!"

"And I took you, Miss Pollard, for a far more clever criminal."

Charley's eyes narrowed. She'd not used that name in months. There was only one way he would know it. All pretense of polite formality dropped as her voice turned cold. "If you know who I am, then you know what's in my cargo."

"I've heard a rumor."

"Do you expect me to guess what you may or may not know?"

"Perhaps you might simply tell me."

Charley could tell that she was in a dangerous situation. She could feel it. She had been here before. She could either play it out a bit longer, try to deescalate it, or she could take a drastic move and hope for the best. Given the glassy eyes staring at her from the walls, it wasn't much of a choice.

She moved quickly, hand to her belt behind her back, and withdrew a small pistol, aiming it right between Hem's eyes. "If that canvas behind me so much as rustles with the wind, there will be nothing left of your head to mount on my wall."

For a moment, Hem was caught completely off guard. He smiled slowly as he lifted his hands in surrender. "Well. Now I see that it is you who has me at a disadvantage."

"How do you know my name?"

"My lady, please," he laughed. "Do not insult me. There is not a man on Grybon who doesn't know your name. Only those too busy or too intimidated to bother with you."

"Then you should know the lengths I'm prepared to go to in order to secure safe passage off of this god-forsaken rock."

"Forgive me, I'm afraid I was unclear. It is not you they are intimidated by. It's your employers."

"_Former_ employers."

"Well, whoever they are, they have offered a hell of a lot of money to offer you and/or your... cargo, as you put it, safely returned."

"Well they're not here," she said flatly. "Right now, you have me to deal with. So either take the Jethric and alert your best pilot that I will be on my way - with an escort, if you don't mind - or so help me, I will take my business elsewhere."

Hem watched her for a moment longer, then chuckled as he shook his head in modest disbelief. "With a pistol to my head, my lady," he gave her a full smile, "how can I refuse?"

***X*X*X***

"Doctor?"

Dizzy and disoriented, it took the Doctor a moment to recognize the voice of the woman kneeling beside him.

"Romana...?"

"Doctor, are you alright?"

Blinded by the light in the room, he blinked a few times and rubbed his fingers into his temple. As he raised his other hand, he was surprised to find it heavy. Oh. He was still holding something. The coronet, heavy and golden, decorated enough to be mistaken for a crown.

"I... yes. Yes, I think so."

"That could've been a smoother entry," Romana said dryly. "I thought I'd lost you for a moment there."

"Lost me?"

"Consciousness, at least."

He slowly brought the world back into focus and stared at her blankly. She raised a brow, a silent question, and he winced at the headache that was burning like a hot coal behind his eye. Then he rose, shakily, to his feet and handed the coronet back to her. "I remember now why I didn't care for that experience the first time," he muttered.

"But you found what you were looking for," Romana guessed. She knew he wouldn't have come back out if he hadn't.

"I did." He drew in a deep breath and let it out slow. "I know the last ship she caught, and I know where it was headed."

"Where was she?"

The Doctor's eyes faded out of focus for a moment. Then he drew a deep breath and looked hard at Romana, with new determination now that he had a direction to head into. "She was on Grybon."


	6. Chapter Five

**CHAPTER FIVE**

He wasn't sure what to say to her. In spite of all the times, over the past few days, he had let his mind drift to the first words he might say, all of the ways she might react, he still didn't know what to say. He saw the scenes play out before his eyes in rapid succession. But none of them felt right. None of them felt real, when he actually stood at a distance and watched her.

She had aged some - not a great deal, but enough to notice. Eighteen when he'd first met her, she was at least ten years older now. And thinner. Much thinner, in fact. She looked as if she'd been starving for weeks. Her life on the run for the past six months had not been easy. Her hair was cut short and artificially darkened. But her eyes, her smile, her poise was all very much the same. She was sitting on the park bench with a pad of paper and a pencil - sketching or writing, he couldn't tell. She glanced up every so often to look at her surroundings - drawing inspiration, perhaps, from the children on the playground equipment, the joggers on the path, the elderly man feeding the pigeons. Places like this were designed to look and feel as much like Original Earth as possible. It was no wonder she seemed happy.

He wondered how long he could lurk on the periphery. Of her vision, of her life. He had been looking for her for so long - at least it felt like it. And now all that remained between her and him were the years and a children's see-saw. A lone man in the playground, he adjusted his cravat - only to find it was no longer there. Instead, he straightened his leather jacket and half-hoped that she would notice him. But he always blended in so well, he thought wryly. Even if he hadn't been dressed period-appropriately for New Earth, he would've blended in. He was good at it. Blending in, but never belonging.

She glanced up. Right at him, in fact. Even from here he could still see the spark in her. The kindness. The adventure. But she smiled and looked away quickly, as if she didn't see him at all. Just another face in the crowd. At this distance, maybe she didn't recognize him. Maybe it wasn't him she'd seen at all. Maybe she was looking past him.

The little white dog at her feet had her attention now, and the kids who were running up to try and grab its leash. She pet the dog until they arrived, smiled at them as they walked away, and glanced back in his direction with a curious expression before quickly cutting her gaze away again. She knew she was being watched. She didn't want to make eye contact.

He frowned and took a deep breath. A younger, rasher him would have already jackknifed over to the bench and hugged her. But the world weighed upon him so much more these days. After losing her, losing Lucie, losing everyone that mattered. And yet, he had managed to find her. Even if she hadn't wanted to be found...

He released his breath and strode over to the bench, casting a long shadow over her. She blinked as she looked up at him, feigning surprise at the intrusion. She'd known he was watching. Her attention had followed him every step of the way, even if her eyes hadn't. She'd been ready for confrontation. He could tell that much by her posture.

"How!" he greeted her in a tone much more solid than he felt. He felt like a ghost. So removed from her life...

She blinked, staring at him in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

The Doctor blinked rapidly. Her response startled him. He was the one who forgot important things - who he was, where he was, who he was with - not Charley. She was the one who reminded him of things or... unless it wasn't really her...

"Charley?" he asked, unsure for just an instant. "Charlotte Pollard?"

She bristled, and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, to get a better look at him. "No..." she answered warily.

But it was a lie.

She stood. In spite of her calm tone, the white knuckle grip she had on the notebook conveyed her... what? Fear? She would have looked like a rabbit getting ready to bolt if not for that spark in her eyes, the fire. Why run when she could still stand her ground? She was every bit the Charley he remembered.

"I'm sorry, do I...?" She frowned as she studied him harder, her tone growing more uncertain, more curious than wary. She pushed her hair back as the wind blew it in her face and took a tiny, hesitant step closer, still squinting into the sun. "Do I know you?"

"Charley, it's me," he tried again. "Don't let the new clothes fool you."

She blinked at him. His hearts felt like they were in his throat as he scanned her face for some recognition. She seemed so alert, so fearful, as if she were trying to calculate all viable exits. Perhaps even old strategy 9 - distract and disperse. And yet she was Charley. She could be no one else.

He held out a shaking hand to her. "You do remember me, don't you, Charley? The Doctor..."

Her eyes widened. She dropped the notebook and jumped, surprised, as it hit the ground with a slap. "Oh!"

He smiled.

Still wide eyed and startled, she reacted instinctively to bend down and pick the book up. Or maybe she was just giving herself a moment. She certainly seemed to hesitate on the way back up. She swallowed noticeably as she took a step forward, barely breathing.

"Doctor?" A spark of hope, a flash of recognition, of memory... But she couldn't believe her eyes. She frowned. "_The _Doctor."

"_The _Doctor? Of course, _the _Doctor, how many Time Lords do you know called 'Doctor'?"

She swallowed hard, her breathing shallow as she stared at him. Instead of looking more convinced, she actually seemed to look more fearful. "You can't be," she said firmly.

"Alright. Proof, then." He withdrew his proffered hand and fished about in his pockets until he withdrew his sonic screwdriver. He clicked it on to setting thirteen and held it up, letting it whir frantically. "Perhaps you'll remember this? You used to say that it drove you bananas whenever I insisted on putting up shelves when you were sleeping. Remember, Charley?"

Her eyes were growing even wider. He slipped the screwdriver back into his pocket. "What about thwarting the Threllips? Or meeting young Shakespeare? What about Edith? Or Ramsey! You remember Ramsey!"

Her breath caught. She was shaking her head quickly as she took a step back. "No..."

"It is me Charley," he said quietly, lowering his voice just above a whisper. "Cross my hearts."

"But I saw you die! And you didn't... you couldn't have..."

"Well, perhaps what you saw... was some sort of illusion."

"No, it wasn't an illusion, you _died_!"

"Except I'm not dead." He paused, studying her. "Expert in near death experiences, perhaps. Dead many times over if not for you, certainly. But I am still very much alive."

He pressed his hands to his jacket to demonstrate his solidity. She swallowed hard, her hands shaking just slightly as she straightened her posture and took a step forward again with newfound determination.

"Take off your shirt," she ordered.

Now it was his turn to be confused. "My shirt?"

"Do it! Now!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told. He couldn't rush her. As much as it pained him to not reach out and hug her, he had to play by her terms. He removed his leather jacket and lifted his shirt, watching for her reaction.

"See? No cybernetic wires, no Dalek enhancements. Not a Sontaran clone. Just me. Just the Doctor."

She hesitated a moment, then took another step closer, staring at his chest. Finally, she reached out, fingers tracing the deep scar between his hearts. Ah, so that was it...

She swallowed hard as her posture slackened, and her eyes welled up with tears. "Doctor..."

He smiled. "Hello, Charley."

She looked back up at his face, scanning him as if she were memorizing every detail. "You're alive. But how did you...?"

He didn't have a chance to answer. The shock passed, the realization set in, and she gasped in a deep breath as she threw her arms around his neck, suddenly clinging to him for dear life.

"Doctor! Oh my God, Doctor, you're _alive_!"

"Exactly what I've been trying to tell you, Miss Pollard!"

He laughed, and hugged her back, tightly. It felt so good to hold her, to smell her. Warm and tangible and alive. And glad to see him. Not angry, not disappointed. Holding her weight as her feet flailed behind her, he felt lighter than he had for years. For just a moment, he actually felt his eyes sting with tears as the strife of the previous months melted away. For just a moment... he was home again.

She was laughing and sobbing at the same time, holding on to him as if her life depended on it. People were staring. He didn't care. He'd never been hugged so tight in his life. With her face turned into his neck, he could feel her tears, hot on his skin, as her hair tickled his nose. She mumbled something he couldn't understand, but ended in a sob.

"Charley, Charley, Charley, it's okay. I've got you."

She mumbled again. She was going to have to stand on her own two feet if she wanted to talk so that he could actually hear what she was saying. But she seemed to be in no great hurry.

"It's alright," he said again, resting his head against hers. "I found you and I don't intend on going anywhere."

"How?" She pulled away and wiped her eyes roughly as she looked up at him, clearing away the tears. She was still clearly overcome with emotion, but she had a new concern now. "How _did _you find me? You shouldn't have been able to find me. _Nobody_ should've been able to find me!"

"Well, it wasn't easy," he admitted. He released her gently, and she came to rest on her own two feet in front of him. "And I know you never wanted to see me again, but I had to at least -"

"Never wanted to...?" She trailed off, shaking her head, jaw dropped open.

"Remember what we always said," he whispered, finding her hands and clasping them tightly. "Never, ever, ever give up. And I didn't. And here I am!"

She was still staring at him in bewilderment. "How could you think...?"

Suddenly, as if being doused with cold water, she was alert and turning away. She looked to one side and then the other over her shoulder before spinning around with her back to him. "Julia," she said quickly, her voice panicked. "Where's Julia?"

"Julia?" he repeated, confused. He instinctively looked about him but saw no one significant. Just children and the odd adult at the playground. The old man was now sitting by the bank reading.

"Julia!" Charley was turning in circles, calling loudly. "Julia!"

Her eyes were scanning - the playground first and then the pathway, everything, everyone she could see. She was searching for a child. Julia was a child.

"Oh, no no no, she _promised_ she wouldn't wander off and I only had my back turned for a minute! Julia!"

"Julia!" He knew his own voice would carry far further than hers.

"Julia!"

No child came running.

Charley was turning in circles, scanning everywhere. Not one for hysterics, she was as close to sheer panic as the Doctor had ever seen her as she started asking anyone she could find. "She's a little girl. Blonde hair, kind of curly, green eyes, about this tall..."

The Doctor continued scanning, but there was no child matching that description here.

"She's three years old, pink dress... _bright _pink. Um... purple shoes?"

Shaking heads and sympathetic looks answered her. A few people even joined in the search. But no one had seen the child. She ran from person to person as he checked all around the perimeter. There were lots of little girls in pink dresses, but none that seemed to match Charley's description and none answering to the name of "Julia". As Charley finally rejoined with him on the far side of the park, she was shaking.

"Just a minute! I just... I just looked away for a minute! Oh, how could I be so stupid! Stupid, stupid..."

"It's alright, Charley," he said reassuringly. "We'll find her."

"We can use the Tardis, can't we?"

He hesitated. He hadn't gotten to the part yet where he figured out _how _they would find her. "Well..."

"We could watch what happens, when she disappears."

Rubbing the back of his neck uneasily, he glanced around the park again. "You realize that would mean going back on our own timeline."

"We wouldn't have to change anything at all. We wouldn't even have to step out of the Tardis; we could just watch on the scanner. Purely observation. That's alright then, isn't it? Surely even the Time Lords wouldn't disapprove of a bit of observation."

He smirked at her logic, the attempt to justify something that wasn't really justifiable. "I don't think they'd approve. But they don't necessarily have to know. And as long as we stay completely out of sight, then -"

"Good! So where's the Tardis?" Charley demanded, all of her anxiety and panic wrapped up into the determination in her eyes. "Please tell me it's somewhere close."


	7. Chapter Six

**CHAPTER SIX**

"There she is," Charley said, pointing to the little girl in the pink dress on the scanner.

"Happen to know the man she's talking to?" the Doctor asked, keeping one eye on the little girl and the other on the tearful reunion taking place only a few yards away. The Tardis was out of sight from that angle, he was pretty sure. And so far, he felt no uneasy shifting about in his mind and memories. They would probably go unnoticed.

"I've never seen him before," Charley said, studying the man. "But I can guess."

"Can you? Good." He cast her a sideways glance. "Enlighten me."

She hesitated. Whether she was unsure of her response or just unsure of how many blanks he was asking her to fill, he couldn't really tell.

"He's a... bounty hunter," she finally blurted out. "I mean, if I had to guess."

"And he's after you."

She looked straight at him. "Quite possibly. Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't." In fact, he'd already known that much by what the Matrix had shown him of Grybon. He threw the lever on the Tardis doors, opening them to the sunshine outside. "Though you and I are definitely going to need to have a little talk about that. Preferably sometime soon."

She was already halfway to the door. He followed a step behind, out into the bright sunlight where he paused to close and lock the doors behind him. "Charley, stay back," he warned as she ran to catch up with the man who was leading the child away. "While we're still near our other selves, we don't want to make a -"

"Oi! Julia!"

The Doctor sighed inwardly as his warning fell on deaf ears. "- scene."

He'd been hoping the man was simply a pedophile or some equally disturbed but harmless-when-caught individual. He'd been distinctly hoping _against _Charley's bounty hunter assumption. But as the man turned, grabbed the girl by the arm, and pulled a laser pistol from his jacket, the Doctor knew today was not his lucky day.

"Charley, get down!"

The sound of the shot - distinct and fear-inducing - sent the park's occupants scrambling like ants in all directions. It attracted the attention of his former self, and he winced at the brief pain as the fresh memory was overwritten with a paradoxical one. But he didn't have time to think about that.

"Is he seriously _shooting _at us in the middle of a crowded park!" Charley cried with indignant anger.

"Yes, it would seem that way."

Another shot in their direction barely missed his head, and he ducked down lower behind the park bench. It certainly wasn't the greatest cover, but in the confusion and chaos of people running in every direction, it wasn't the worst, either. Crouched down beside him, Charley gave a frustrated growl.

"Just let me at him," she snarled. "I'm gonna kill him, I swear it!"

Pushing himself up, the Doctor checked through the slats of the bench before he scrambled to his feet. "Come on!"

The man had used the confusion to run. But the Doctor was fairly certain they could catch up when he not only had a child to slow him down, but had to keep an eye out for the police who would almost certainly be looking for him now that he'd attracted so much attention to himself. But as soon as they had him in sight, he simply turned and started shooting again, impervious to the fact that they were on a fairly busy street. Ducking behind the wall, in the alleyway, the Doctor's brow furrowed.

"This isn't going to work," he said firmly. "Innocent people are going to get hurt. Who is this guy, anyway, Charley? I'm beginning to think he's not a professional at all."

"I didn't say he was a professional; I said he was a bounty hunter."

"Bounty hunters don't generally shoot at their targets. Much less at the risk of innocent lives. We need a -"

Charley tried to push past him, tried to run again, to follow. But he caught her by the arm. "Charley, _wait_!"

"I'm not losing her, Doctor!"

"I know that. But this isn't working. There's too many innocent bystanders."

"Well, what do you want me to do, call the police?"

"Under the circumstances, that might not be a bad idea."

"What!"

He held her arms, focusing her attention on him for a moment. "Listen, Charley, just calm down."

"Calm down!" she cried, angry and indignant.

"You're reacting without even thinking and it's clouding your -"

"What are the police going to do besides ask a lot of difficult questions once it's all over? He's getting _away_!"

"Charley!"

Her eyes widened at his raised voice, and he dropped it again.

"Have I _ever _given you a reason not to trust me? Ever!"

She swallowed, her eyes welling up with tears from the adrenaline overflow. Her hands were shaking. But she swallowed hard and finally shook her head.

"Then trust me now. I'll get her back."

She nodded tightly.

"Stay right here and call the police. Keep them on the phone. I have an idea, but I need you to trust me; I need you to _not _follow me."

"What!"

"Stay here. Call the police. Can you do that?"

She shut her eyes hard, set her jaw, and deliberated only for a moment before she nodded. Well aware that he was losing time, the Doctor turned and positioned her against the wall as he slipped out into the street and followed behind the retreating man.

*X*X*X*

It had been a while since he'd tailed someone. This sort of thing was all a bit cops and robbers for him - not normally his bag. Not that he didn't enjoy a good chase every once in a while. Especially on the rare occasion that he was the one doing the chasing and not the other way around. And besides being a good exercise in alertness, it gave him time to think.

Three-year-old Julia was an unexpected addition to this reunion. He hadn't been sure whether he expected Charley to be happy to see him or angry, whether she had moved on and didn't need him anymore or whether she would welcome him back into her life with open arms. But in no scenario had he foreseen a three-year-old little girl. She had to be Charley's child; she looked just like her, for one thing and the maternal instinct was too strong for it to be otherwise. Had Charley settled down, at one point? Fallen in love? Whose child was it?

It was physically impossible that the child could be his. The fact that he even had that thought to begin with startled him. Even when they'd been travelling and living together as lovers, driven by lust for the experience of what that love could feel like, they had never allowed the possibility of a child. But this little girl, whose face he had never even seen up close, was a part of Charley and so, in a way, was a part of him. What a strange feeling it was, to have such an immediate bond to someone he didn't even know. And the logic in his reasoning, why he felt that way, was no less strange.

The man was moving more slowly now. He'd put away the weapon, and was walking with the little girl, glancing over his shoulder every few steps to make sure Charley wasn't following. It was Charley he was looking for, not the Doctor. All the Doctor had to do was avoid eye contact, to blend in, to be unremarkable. He smiled to himself as he followed at a distance. He was good at blending in...

Julia, it seemed, was surprisingly calm. No tears, no fits, and yet walking of her own accord, holding his hand as she looked around. Did she know the man? Did she not notice her mother's panic? Did she have no fear of the laser pistol? There were so many questions the Doctor had. But there was certainly one that stuck out above all the rest: Where was the getaway vehicle?

The man didn't have a teleport device. If he had, he would've simply used it in the park. But he had a plan; he was well-organized. Even if the child went with him willingly, he had to have a destination in mind, a place to take her. If he was a bounty hunter, and assuming the bounty was issued from somewhere other than New Earth, he was going to need a ship. So where was it?

It wasn't a ship. It was an automobile. A plain, ordinary hover car with a plain, ordinary license plate and a limited range teleportation field if the primitive looking contraption on top of it was any indication. Limited range teleport meant he would probably drive close to his ship, then teleport on board. And even if that wasn't his plan, the Doctor had what he needed. He ducked back as the man put the little girl in the backseat. By the time he made it around to the driver's side, the Doctor was in a dead sprint down the street, back the way he'd come, back to Charley.

She was startled to see him, still on the phone, as instructed. Her eyes widened as she saw him. "Doctor! Where is -"

"He's in a car, Charley."

"A what?"

"Dark blue Fitzer 105 model, maybe 106..." In spite of the fact that he was in excellent shape - the kind of life he lived more or less demanded it - he had to pause a minute to catch his breath. "The registration is 8-2-2-4-franchise yellow. Tell the police and let's _go_!"

She repeated the information as quickly as she could, and took off after him as he headed back to the Tardis. The police were at the park already, talking to people about the shooting. Quick response; he was impressed. Luckily for him, they were hardly observant enough to notice anyone slipping into the blue box in the trees.

"What the hell was all that about!" Charley demanded as he headed for the console. "Call the police? Since when has local law enforcement been your solution?"

"Only part of the solution, Charley," he answered, casting a smug grin in her direction. "Listen."

As he turned the dial on the console, the slightly crackling sound of radio transmissions filled the console room.

"The police scanners?" she guessed.

"Wherever he was going, he wasn't going to get there on foot. We were too far from the Tardis to get back and then catch up to him; we would've lost him, not known where to look. And these short range time jumps wreak havoc with the poor girl's circuits, anyway. But with a few more pairs of eyes, and the entire satellite surveillance system tracking his movements..."

She pushed her hair back, holding it between her fingers as she watched him circle the Tardis console. "And what makes you think he's going to some secret base here on New Earth? What's to stop him from popping off to a larger ship and leaving the planet before they have a chance to stop him?"

"Oh, I'm counting on it. And when he does -"

"Suspect engaged teleport at 1-0-3-X, 8-3-2-1-Z."

"Coordinates," Charley muttered.

"The Tardis can follow a fresh energy signature to the ends of the universe," the Doctor said smugly. "And we can pretty much guarantee he hasn't gone that far."

"But you could've gotten those yourself. With the Tardis. Just jump back to where you saw him disappear and follow the energy signature."

He raised a brow as he glanced at her. She was telling him what his Tardis could do? This was new... He wasn't entirely sure he liked it. "You know, Charley, I have done this before," he answered, a little indignantly. "Well, maybe not _this_, specifically, but I'm not entirely unfamiliar with making quick decisions to ensure the best possible outcome. Have a little faith."

She lowered her eyes, jaw tight. But she didn't argue.

The landing onboard the ship's cargo area - right beside the getaway car - was smooth. The scanner was on, and the startled expression of the man outside was confirmation that he had not anticipated the possibility of being followed. And the pistol in Charley's hand made the Doctor do a double take.

"Charley, do you really think that's necessary? Or _wise_?"

"I'm going to get my daughter back."

"Yes, but with _that_?" He wasn't quite able to hide his disgust. "I perform a fantastic maneuver, flawlessly materialize the Tardis right in the middle of this ship, and you want to go out there and wave a gun at him?"

"You have a better idea?" she challenged, brow raised.

"Usually."

She studied him for a moment, her eyes cold. The more he watched her, the more he realized that she was not quite the same Charley he remembered. This Charley was older, harder, and more scarred. "What about right now?" she challenged. "Do you have a better idea right now?"

"Yes."

She hesitated for a moment, as if evaluating his tone. But it was cold and flat, a simple statement of fact, without a hint of persuasion or encouragement. He wouldn't stop her, but he wouldn't respect her either. Not if she went out there and shot that man down, bounty hunter or no. Not when there was a better way.

She took a slow breath, then set the pistol carefully on the console. "Alright, Doctor. We'll try it your way first."

"Good."

He cast one more glance at the weapon, gave it a furrowed look, then returned his attention to the scanner and the man who had just discovered he was caught between an invisible force field and the big blue box that had generated it. Eyes wide, still caught off guard, he spun to face the Tardis, grabbing the little girl by the hair and pressing the barrel of his own pistol to the side of her head. The Doctor frowned at the scene. It wasn't just the display of violence that concerned him. It was the relative calm of a three-year-old child in the clutches of a threatening stranger. He had seen a lot of things. He had never seen a child look quite so blank. Was she drugged? Under some form of mind control?

"Let the girl go and we let you go," the Doctor said calmly, holding down the transmission button that would override any shortwave broadcast system in the area -including the ship's own PA system. "We can forget that little fiasco on the planet below; I won't even send you back to face the charges I'm sure the police would love to file against you. Just let her go, and we can all be on our way."

"Get off my ship or I blow her bleedin' head off!"

The Doctor had no chance to respond. Charley was leaning across the console, holding down the transmission button herself. "You do that and you'll_ never_ get your bounty. I'll bloody well make sure of it."

"Thank you, Charley," the Doctor said under his breath, not the least bit grateful for the interruption. He cast her a worried look as she stepped back, seething with anger. She was glaring hard at the scanner as the man debated his options.

"How sure are you that she's no good to him dead?" the Doctor asked cautiously.

"Not as sure as I am that he'll die if he harms one hair on her head."

"Yes, I believe you, Charley, but the problem is, revenge won't bring her back."

"Revenge isn't the point, Doctor. If he kills her, he's committing suicide. He'd best think about that very carefully before he decides to pull the trigger."

"That's rather a defeatist attitude, don't you think?"

"Defeatist!"

His eyes narrowed at her, matching her fiery anger with ice. "I was under the impression that the goal here was to get your daughter back _alive_. If he shoots her, regardless of how you vent your anger after the fact, she's still _dead_, Charley!"

Jaw tight, Charley stood glaring back at him, and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Your ship's not going anywhere," the Doctor said firmly, opening the transmission once more. "And I'm not letting you out of that force field until you let her go. Do it now, you lose your bounty but you make a clean getaway. Do it later, you still lose your bounty when the police show up, only they take you into custody for kidnapping, at the very least. Kill her, and I rather think my friend here is serious about putting a bullet in your head. In any case, you've already lost your bounty. And if you care to try your luck, please be aware that I've got all the time in the world and you've got three patrol ships heading your way. Choose carefully."

The man was trapped; it was painfully obvious. But like a liar who couldn't see the truth for all his deceit, he stumbled and stuttered his way through one bargain attempt after another before finally, frantically, he let go of the little girl. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't until the police had already threatened to board that he made his move. A frantic attempt at escape lay ahead of him, and he needed all the time he could get.

"Stay away from the door," the Doctor warned as he opened it. "Just in case he starts shooting."

"Julia, come inside, honey," Charley directed the little girl.

With a step that was a bit more toddle than walk, the girl walked forward, in through the doors without incident. Charley let out an audible sigh of relief as the Doctor closed the doors, lowered the force field, and left the man to his own efforts of persuasion with the local law enforcement.

"Are you alright?" Charley asked as she smoothed the girl's hair back.

The child nodded, looking around her with innocent curiosity - the walls, the ceiling, the console. She barely seemed to notice the Doctor.

"Mummy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Why is it bigger on the inside?"


	8. Chapter Seven

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

The sight of the Doctor at the console, deeply engrossed in whatever it was he had found to occupy him, was a sight that pulled Charley up short. Just outside the hallway, at the top of the enormous, elegant staircase, she stood for a moment simply watching him.

The change in his appearance still startled her a bit when she saw him standing there. Not much; she had seen him dress to period quite often and it was not so drastic a change as between him and the other Doctor - his younger self, with whom she'd traveled for some time. If he could change so drastically, surely a haircut wasn't such a big deal. But at the same time, the comparison almost seemed to make it more significant. He had cut his hair, changed his look because he _wanted_ to, not because the process of pseudo-death had forced the change on him.

He wasn't watching her, but he knew she was there. His voice, echoing off of the impossibly high ceiling, drifted over to her. "Did you get her to sleep?"

"Yes." Charley came down the steps slowly, hand trailing along the rail at her side. "Finally. She's full of questions. Can't say I blame her."

"She seemed to take everything rather well from what I could see."

So many memories were in this room. So many emotions - things she never thought she would feel again. Not like this. Not to this extent. Not because of him.

"She handled it much better than I would've expected from a three-year-old," he continued. "Or from a full grown adult, for that matter."

"She trusts me." Charley avoided his gaze as she approached the console, sneakers falling almost-silently on the cold floor. "She knows I'll keep her safe."

"I've never found fear to be a very rational emotion."

"No. But a rational mind can keep it at bay if there's no reason for it."

"Fair point. In which case she's incredibly rational for a small child."

"So she is."

Charley paused at the console, still avoiding his gaze and distinctly avoiding the implied question. Instead, she looked instead up at the scanner. "So where are we?"

"In the Vortex," the Doctor answered simply. "Where would you like to be?"

The question made her pause for a moment, made her stomach tighten into a knot. More than a question, it had sounded like an invitation. That mysterious, excited voice of his. She had heard that voice so many times, in so many dreams and memories since she'd parted ways with him. In so many contexts...

"Well, I do need to go back home to get a few things."

He frowned as he glanced up at her. She could only see him out of the corner of her eye, but she could feel the weight of his stare. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Perhaps not wise, but necessary." Finally, she looked up at him, just briefly. "Possessions don't mean a lot to me anymore, but I've tried very hard to make sure Julia can hold on to some small pieces of... stability."

He watched her for a moment more, then looked back down at the console. "Yes. Yes, of course."

"I'm afraid I don't exactly have coordinates."

"No need. I have them."

She blinked, startled. "To my house? You have coordinates to my house?"

"The park wasn't the first place I looked for you."

That knot was tightening. How had he even found her? _Why _had he found her? She didn't understand and right now, she didn't even want to ask. Right now, she just wanted to run.

It was an odd emotion, and not one she'd ever expected to feel if she ever had the chance to stand in this room again and speak to the Doctor - _her _Doctor - face to face. But she had never been good at keeping secrets - least of all from him. The web of lies she had constructed to mask her identity from his earlier self had been a lot of work, and in the end it had felt like an enormous burden was being lifted when she finally told him. Right before he forgot about her...

But that was just one of many, many reasons she couldn't look him in the eye right now. She couldn't even be glad to see him - beyond the initial shock, of course - because of all the things she was thinking and feeling. So much had changed since the last time she'd stood in this room. _She _had changed. She couldn't bear to think of him knowing all of the things she had done in the past few years. Or millennia; it was hard to tell. But she knew she couldn't keep the secret for long...

"If you don't mind dropping us off somewhere far away from here, it would be much appreciated."

He cast her a questioning look. "Dropping you off?"

"Yes, the further the better." She looked down at the Tardis console, tracing her fingertips along the edges of her controls. "Most of the ships I've been able to secure a ride from didn't have _near _the range of the Tardis. It's a good opportunity to get beyond the limits of anyone who might come looking for me. At least for a while. If that bounty hunter knows where I am, the ones who sent him won't be far behind. And if I'm still anywhere near here when they come, they'll blow up entire planets if I don't come quietly."

"That'd be the Viyrans."

She paused, caught slightly off guard, and didn't respond. She wasn't sure why she was surprised that he knew about the Viyrans. He had coordinates to her house, and she'd kept that a lot more secret than the identity of her former employers. Still, she had to wonder how much he actually knew. And from where? Was he drawing on his own memories? Or had someone told him?

She didn't have time to ask. She just needed to get out of here...

"Well, am I right?" he prodded. "It is the Viyrans who have the bounty on your head, isn't it?"

"Well... yes."

"Incidentally, when did you start carrying a gun?"

She hesitated a moment, then straightened her posture. There was something almost accusatory in his voice, and she answered him with a touch of indignation. "I've been alone for a long time, Doctor. I've had to learn to take care of myself. Myself, _and_ Julia."

"Your cargo?"

"What?"

Again, she was caught off guard. But this time, it was the Doctor's who sounded indignant. "You told the man on Grybon that you needed safe passage for you and your cargo. Was Julia your cargo? A child?"

Charley's eyes narrowed. "Are you questioning my judgment or just my choice of phrase?"

"I don't know. Maybe both."

"Is that how you found me, then? The man on Grybon?"

"He was only part of it." The indignant tone was slowly fading into the much more familiar "overexcited Doctor" tone she had come to know so many years ago. "As it happens, your last stop before you came to New Earth was within range of a Tardis. Not a surprise; the CIA does try to keep an eye on Grybon what with the time sensitive criminal element there."

"The CIA?"

"Coordinator Straxus. No, wait. You never met him. Vansell, then - remember him? CIA Coordinator, pawn to anti-time, shame about the nose."

Charley frowned.

"Of course, you realize that even though your last stop was among the easiest to find, it was quite a bit more difficult to place in your personal time stream. I'm truly amazed at how many time zones you've managed to cross since that bounty was issued. And without your own ship?"

"I..." She stammered for a moment before she found her voice. "Yes, well..."

"So how did you end up with my sixth self, anyway?"

"Sixth?" she asked, alarmed. She was getting caught up in the whirlwind of his racing thoughts - over, under, around, and through until he ended up in a big ball of questions and overexcited half-answers.

"Coat of many colors, tight curls, bit full of himself?"

"I don't -"

"I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? There's just so many things I want to ask you! Where you've been, and why, and how we got separated in the first place. And when we're through talking about all of that, perhaps I'll ask you why there's this big gaping hole in my memory that I didn't even realize was there before I -"

"Doctor!"

He stopped and stared at her blankly for a moment. Glad for the moment of silence, she raised a hand to massage her forehead. Some things never changed. And his ability to give her a throbbing headache would seem to be one of them.

"Please. Just... get me home."

He was quiet for a moment more, then nodded as he turned back to the console. "Alright. New Earth, by request. But we'll take the long way around."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, we need to give things a chance to settle down in the Vortex near that pathway, just in case someone else comes looking for you. And for another," he looked up and smiled at her. "I think a cup of tea sounds very good right about now. And you have a story to tell."

*X*X*X*

"Ring a ring of roses..."

_Pocket full of posies_...

"A tissue, a tissue."

_ Means, well... dead._

"What a dreary song!"

_Dreary?_

"My mum says that singing about death is dreary."

_What is dreary?_

"Lots of things are dreary. Death, and rainy days, and... yes, yes! That, too. A prison is very dreary."

_Your mum..._

"Yes? No, no, not that kind of mum. That's a flower."

_ Yes. From Earth._

"Flowers don't talk."

_Do mums talk?_

"Mine does."

_Charlotte Ellsworth Pollard. Born on the day the Titanic sank, died on... I can't remember._

"Perhaps because my mum hasn't died yet."

_That doesn't matter. I should still remember..._

"It is rather dark in here. Is there a light?"

_ A light?_

"So that we can see."

_ I can always see._

"Well, I can't. Not when it's dark."

_ What is dark?_

"What do you mean?"

_ Is it like a light?_

"It's like... Oh, yes! Like that! Like the deepest, blackest space. Very good! I'm proud of you."

_ What is proud?_

"I don't know. It's something my mum says to me. When I do something right."

_ Oh. It's good, then._

"Yes. Very good. Do you have a mum?"

_ I... I don't think so. _

"What about the Doctor? He takes care of you, doesn't he?"

_My Doctor?_

"Oh! Is that the Doctor? He looks so different."

_ He is my Doctor._

"He changes his form, then? I knew a man like that once."

_ He is always the same. And he is always different._

"So many faces! There must be... seven, eight, nine... thirteen of them!"

_ There are many. But he is always the Doctor._

"My mum can't do that."

_ Mine can._

"Do you have a name?"

_ Name? What is a name?_

"My name is Julia. Do you not know your name?"

_ No... No, I suppose I've never asked. _

"Then I will tell you. Your name is Tardis, your mum is Doctor, and he loves you very much."

_ Does he?_

"All mums do."

_ Hmm. Then I think you might be a bit confused._

"Am I?"

_ Yes. If that's the case, I think I might be _his_ mum._

*X*X*X*

"After the Cybermen, in Singapore, translating back and forth between 1942 and the year 500-thousand, I was sort of... shipwrecked, for lack of a better word," Charley said slowly, curling into the control room's easy chair and tucking her feet underneath her. She was cradling the cup of tea in her hands, but seemed to have little interest in drinking it. "I sent out an SOS and he - you - responded. Picked me up, took me in. Of all the people in the universe, I don't know how it could've been _you _to pick up that distress signal. But it was."

The Doctor nodded slowly, leaning back on the console with his eyes on her and his hands wrapped loosely around his own cup. "Your experience with the R-101, the paradox that was resolved, it predisposes you to further time anomalies," he explained. "The Tardis must have picked up on it, been drawn to it."

She smiled slightly - sadly? - as she shook her head. "You wouldn't believe how hard it was to keep a secret from you. The fact that I knew you already. Well... a later you..."

"I can imagine."

"Imagine, but not remember?" She glanced up quickly, but looked away just as quickly. She couldn't hold his gaze, wouldn't meet his eye. It was becoming more and more obvious.

"No. Not entirely. Only flashes of memory."

"Oh. I see." She finally took a sip from her cup, and smiled softly. "Oh, it's been a very long time since I've had a good cup of tea."

"How did you end up working for the Viyrans?"

Her shoulders tensed noticeably and she took a deep breath in and out. "You and I were... separated."

"How?"

"Does it matter?" The words came out quick and cold, as if they hurt, and she glared at him briefly before looking away again. "They took me in, gave me my life back."

The Doctor stared, confused. "Your life back?"

"It was a mutually beneficial relationship. For a time, at least. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. It's over."

He leveled his gaze on her. "You didn't answer my question."

She sighed. "Doctor, I'm sorry that I've dragged you into this. I tried to make sure that your memory of the Viyrans was -"

"Was what?" he interrupted. "Erased? Hidden? Changed?"

He felt the first, tiny flicker of anger spark inside of him at the thought that _she _had tried to do anything at all to his memory. It was one thing to think that the Viyrans had done it, or had used her as a means to that end. But _she_ had tried?

She looked away and he gathered his calm again, pausing for another sip of strong, sweet tea.

"It was, actually," he said.

"What?"

"My memory. It was... damaged. And d'you know, I'm not entirely sure what brought it back."

She glanced back up at him with a pained look, confused and yet not wanting to ask questions she didn't want to know the answers to.

"It was the Tardis, I'm fairly certain," he continued. "But I can't seem to figure out why. If I remember correctly, the two of you didn't get on too terribly well when you and I were traveling together. A sentient time ship and a walking paradox, it's no wonder."

She closed her eyes, as if blocking out a bad memory, and he frowned.

"Of course, you and _I _got along just splendidly..."

*X*X*X*

"So if you knew my mum, why didn't you just say so?"

_Why should I? I don't even know who you are._

"I told you. I'm Julia."

_But what is a Julia? I have never met a Julia._

"I don't know. It's me. I'm like my mum."

_No. No, you're most certainly not._

"Am I like a Doctor?"

_I... I don't know. No. You are not like a Doctor. You do not feel like him._

"Oh! Do you feel?"

_I... Yes. I suppose. I do feel._

"I don't. Mum says it's wonderful to feel. Is it wonderful?"

_You don't feel?_

"No."

_Not anything?_

"No."  
_Well, that explains why you talk so strangely..._

"What do you mean?"

_You talk with words. I'm not used to words. At least, not words that I can understand._

"How do you talk normally?"

_Through... feelings._

***X*X*X***

"Doctor, it's been such a long time. All that we did, all that we saw... that feels like ages ago now..."

She could hear the sadness in her own words, and something she was surprised to realize was fear. Not fear of him; she knew he'd never harm her. The fear of hope, perhaps. For just a moment, sitting here in this familiar control room, she felt very frightened, and very lost. Everything was familiar here, and it might have been so easy to just slip right back into that old life if she hadn't grown so cold, been so damaged on the inside. Right now, it seemed the only way to protect herself from the fear that was threatening to overwhelm her was to push aside those memories and to focus on what she knew to be true now. She'd been so strong and so alone for so long...

"You know, I'm not sure it's properly sunk in yet."

She glanced up at him questioningly as his voice cut through her thoughts. "What's not?"

"Seeing you here."

He was studying her intently. She wished he would stop that. It was terribly unnerving. She sighed as she raised her cup again. "It's been a very long time, Doctor."

"It's going to take some getting used to. Having you around again."

She shifted uneasily, and took a bigger gulp that she'd intended. "Don't get too used to it," she answered softly.

If he was hurt, or shocked by her words, he didn't show it. He simply watched her, and sipped his tea. "Do you know, there's one thing I don't understand."

She glanced up questioningly.

"If you were in trouble, why didn't you ever try to find me?"

She laughed. "_Me _try to find _you_? I thought you were dead! And even if I hadn't where would I have even begun to look?"

"I would've found you a lot more easily if you'd given me some sort of clue."

"Yes, and the Viyrans might have done, as well." Her expression was pained as she looked up at him. "We're not safe, Doctor. No matter where we go, we're not safe."

"You're safe with me."

"Oh, Doctor, you know better than that." She looked at him sadly. "And if you don't, you will."

"More defeatism," he said, sounding amused. "You know, I'm not sure I like this new Charley with this new outlook on life."

"It's realism, Doctor," she corrected with a glare. "The Viyrans are very powerful. The fact that you don't remember them clearly ought to be reason enough for you to believe that."

"Perhaps," he granted. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stand back and let them win."

"You don't understand, Doctor. The Viyrans are a force to be reckoned with, even for you."

"So are the Daleks," he answered abruptly. She looked up at him, and saw his face as hard as his tone. "And I'm not afraid of them, either. At least not so much that I would cower rather than fight to protect the things I -" He cut off, and cleared his throat. "Yes, well..."

She stared at him for a moment, then smiled sadly, shaking her head slightly. "No," she agreed. "No, of course you wouldn't."

"Please trust me, Charley." His eyes rose again and remained steady on hers, full of cold resolve and confidence. "I can fix this. I'm the Doctor, remember?"

She smiled tightly as tears brimmed in her eyes. He really believed that. And his confidence was contagious as ever. "Why?" she asked quietly. "It's not even yours to fix, Doctor. I got myself into this mess. It's not your problem."

If he was discouraged, even in the slightest, he didn't show it. He only smiled back, letting the cold mask slip away. That twinkle in his eye was even more noticeable than ever as he answered, "I'm making it mine to fix, Charlotte Pollard. And you know me... I don't give up."


	9. Chapter Eight

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

"I don't like leaving her alone," Charley said as she and the Doctor walked through the backyard, from the Tardis to the back door of the tiny little house at the end of a quiet little street.

"She's in the Tardis," the Doctor reminded her. "There's no safer place in the universe. Besides, she's still asleep."

"But the Viyrans can track her just as easily as you tracked me."

"No, they can't. Not through the hull of the Tardis, they can't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." He reconsidered, and frowned. "Actually, no. It depends on what they're using to track her."

"That's not very reassuring."

"But even if they do find her, they're not getting in. Besides, they put out a bounty so that they wouldn't have to be bothered."

"They put out a bounty so that they could continue to get information on where we were," Charley corrected as she slid her key into the lock. "They don't want to spend their time chasing us, but if they know the general area where we are, it's easy for them to pinpoint our location."

Ignoring her, the Doctor followed a step behind, in through the back door. He closed it behind him as he looked around the small kitchen curiously. "How long have you been living here?"

"Too long, apparently. Why?"

"You know, you have gotten quite good at avoiding questions. Tools of the trade?"

She didn't answer.

"And anyway, it was a bit rhetorical. It's just that the house hardly looks lived in."

There was very little to see. The walls and the windows were barren. But for few clean dishes in a rack beside the sink, the counters were empty. The open floor plan let him see into the lounge, where a badly worn, air-filled chair sat in a corner beside a single shelf with a few books.

"I've learned not to bother accumulating a lot of things. We move around a lot. It's safer not to spend too long in any one place."

Peering into the little girl's room, directly off of the lounge, the Doctor saw a few toys and a neatly made toddler bed. It was even neater and more sterile than his own room had been as a child. He walked on, down the short hallway to Charley's room, and found it just as empty.

"Just what was it you wanted to take with you?" he asked, curious.

"Nothing in there," she called back from inside Julia's room. "Except maybe a few sets of clothes."

Something on Charley's windowsill caught the light from outside, drawing his attention. He hesitated for only a moment before walking over and picking up an old, worn locket. It made him smile the moment he saw it, and more so when he opened it up. Ordinarily, the Doctor avoided cameras as a rule. But for her, he'd made an exception. He was pleased to find that in spite of all she'd been through, she still treasured the small token he'd given her.

Walking back down the narrow hallway, he paused as he found her in the little girl's room, placing toys carefully inside of a large duffel bag.

"Don't forget this."

"Forget what?" She didn't look up.

He opened the locket again and stepped forward, dangling it in front of her. "This."

She paused, and her eyes widened slightly. But she resisted the urge to snatch it from him and instead held out her hand, palm up. He dropped it carefully into her grasp.

"Must you really go rummaging through my things the moment you walk in the door?"

He gasped in mock indignation. "Charlotte Pollard, I do not rummage! I'll have you know that was lying on your windowsill, in plain sight." He took a step back and smiled. "And I'm glad you still have it."

She didn't answer, just looked away and slipped the locket and chain into her pocket. Then she went back to her business, gathering toys and books from the shelves. He watched her for a moment before leaving the room again with a small smile on his face.

He wandered through the living room again, into the kitchen. A single photograph of Charley and the girl was on the refrigerator. Charley looked younger - at least a few years, but the little girl was the same age, with the same blank look in her eyes that had been there since he'd first seen her. She was smiling, but it was fake - as if she were only doing it because she had been told to do. He took the photo carefully off of the fridge and slipped it into his jacket pocket so that it wouldn't be left behind in the rush to pack the essentials, then walked back toward the little girl's room.

Charley was sitting on the floor of the room, with the duffel bag still open and half-packed behind her. The locket she'd so quickly put in her pocket was in her hand again, and she was staring at it again. Hands in her lap, her fingers were wrapped around the chain as she touched the tiny photo inside.

"Charley? Are you alright?"

She was quiet for a moment as he watched her. Quiet and still and suddenly, very small. She was frail to begin with - much more so than when he'd known her before. Too much running and stress, not enough nourishment. But just now, she looked exceptionally vulnerable.

"You know, I almost forgot what it was like, being with you," she whispered.

He smiled. "Well, I'll make sure you don't forget it again."

As she looked up, she wasn't smiling. His look softened as he stepped into the room carefully.

"Charley, what's wrong?"

"That feeling... I haven't felt that feeling in so long."

"What feeling?"

"That feeling that there's nothing to worry about. That I don't have all the answers, and that's okay."

"Being able to trust somebody, then," he summarized, coming closer and sitting down beside her, legs crossed.

"No, it's not just that," she said, shaking her head as she rubbed her thumb over the chain in her hand. "It's _you_. You're always two steps ahead, and nothing's really real, even when it's happening right in front of you. I can't plan for things because... nothing's real."

"What do you mean?"

"Danger's not really danger. The guns don't ever really kill you. They might hurt other people, but never you. Because somehow, some way, you make those people you protect invincible."

He felt those words sear him, and tightened his jaw before he corrected quietly, "Not invincible."

"No, I suppose not. Not really. But it still feels like it. Even when it hurts, you don't feel like you'll actually die." She smiled sadly as she clenched her hand around the locket and leaned forward, rocking as she tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling. "How could I die when there's adventures still to be had? When there's still worlds to see and things to do?"

He wasn't sure how to answer that, or if he could even find an honest answer. People did die on his watch, no matter how many adventures they would've otherwise had left. That thought made his stomach turn, and he looked away.

"You're an impossible man and you do such incredible, impossible things. But that's not real, Doctor. That's not the way the universe really works."

He knew that. He knew it better than she ever could, he was sure. But he kept his knowledge buried as he glanced back at her and saw her staring at him, eyes pained.

"You can't face an army and change the course of a war without so much as lifting a weapon."

"Depends on the war."

She laughed tightly, briefly. "You see what I mean, Doctor? You do these things like they're just commonplace. You face the most dangerous races in the universe with only a screwdriver and your wit, and you win! You walk headlong into traps just to see what's on the other side, and you live. But that's not life, Doctor. That's not the way it works for the rest of us."

"We're not so different, Charley. That was your life, too, when you traveled with me." He drew in a breath and put his doom and gloom thoughts aside, focusing instead on happier memories and motivations. "When you followed me into the Divergent Universe, you can't tell me you thought you were going there to die."

"I was ready to die..."

"Ready, yes," he admitted. "It's always a possibility - for _both _of us. But it doesn't stop you. That's what it means to live life to the fullest! To be free! If you live your life afraid, you never experience anything but fear."

"Sometimes, Doctor, it's good to be afraid."

"Sometimes it is. As long as you don't let that fear paralyze you."

"Or change you?"

He looked at her curiously. She was going somewhere with this, and he wasn't entirely sure where. "Fear can change you, yes."

She looked at him steadily. "How far would you go to protect something you loved? Say, your Tardis."

"Or you?" The words were out before he could stop them. But he didn't bother to retract them.

"Yes, alright. To protect me, then. And Julia. Would you kill?"

He paused. "Possibly. Probably."

"In cold blood? Could you look somebody in the eye who was a threat and shoot them?"

This time, he hesitated longer. "I..."

"Well, I could," Charley answered firmly. "And I have done. Because that's real life. And that's what real people have to do in real life."

He frowned as she shook her head and looked away, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. Slowly, he drew in a breath, and reached out a hand to close over hers, over the locket. She flinched at the touch, but didn't pull away.

"Charley, I'm sorry," he said quietly, sincerely. "I'm sorry you had to experience that."

Slowly, she looked back up at him. "I don't know what you saw, Doctor," she whispered, nearly choking on her own voice. "I don't know what you know about what I've done since I last saw you. But I'm not that same innocent, excitable girl you used to know."

"I can see that much."

"You talk - no, you act - like everything can go back to the way it was. But it can't."

"To tell you the truth, I hadn't given it much thought," he admitted. "Right now, I'm busy trying to work out a plan to deal with the Viyrans on a more permanent basis."

Her brow furrowed in a confused look, and he sighed.

"Charley, I don't care what you've done. You're alive, and that's what I care about. Nothing else matters."

She pulled her hand away from his and glared at him. "Of course it doesn't because you're not even real!"

"What?"

"And this world you live in, it doesn't have room for things like guilt and pain and loss and regret. You shut those things out, you don't let them in. Nothing affects you!"

Still confused, he couldn't help but feel hurt by those words as well. "Charley, that's just not true."

"This life was so long ago, Doctor," she said, through her teeth as she held up the locket. "Maybe not for you, in your unchanging world of adventure and excitement where if somebody dies, you just forget about them like they never even existed!"  
"What! Charley!"

"What was I to you, when I was gone? Was I like C'Rizz? Easily forgotten?"

"I... No!"

She stood, backing away from him. "You come back like... like nothing's happened while we've been apart. Like everything's just as it was before. No time has passed for you at all, has it? A few days? Weeks? Because you look different, Doctor, but you don't look older."

Struck, and hurt, he stammered over the first response he could think of. "I'm a Time Lord, Charley. I don't age the way you do."

"Oh, that's not what I meant," she shot back at him. The tears were overstepping their boundaries now, trailing over her sunken cheeks. "I look at you, at your eyes, and you look just the same as you always were. Nothing affects you. You never have to sacrifice parts of yourself for the sake of someone else. You just let them go and move on like nothing even happened! And here you are, expecting me to act the same way and I... I _can't_, Doctor! I just can't."

"_You _left _me_, Charley. Not the other way around. I didn't want to move on; I had no choice!"

"Yes! And I've killed and I've died and I've... Oh, get out! Just get away from me!"

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, letting the emotions come and go through him before he stood slowly. He hesitated on his first step, but he didn't actually stop until he was at the door. Then he paused, and turned back to look at her, sitting again on the floor with her face in her hands, sobbing.

"Do you know what the difference is between you and me, Charley?" he asked, surprised by his own cold, distant tone.

She didn't look up. But she let her hands drop, sniffling as she quieted her crying to listen.

"It's not that I'm unaffected. It's that I'm prepared, because I know it's going to happen. And even when I'm not, even when something happens that's so painful it makes me want to rip my own hearts out of my chest... The difference between you and me... is that I'm a better liar."

Without another word, he turned, and quietly headed back to the Tardis.

*X*X*X*

"Is that what love looks like?"

_I don't think so. Not all the time._

"What do you mean?"

_ The Doctor loves... strangely. It seems that for his kind, love is as much something to be done as to be felt._

"His kind? Oh! What beautiful robes they all wear. The planet is beautiful too. What is it called?"

_This was Gallifrey._

"And do the people of Gallifrey all do love in the same way?"

_ It's difficult to tell. I've had other controllers, besides the Doctor. But none of them seem to love. In fact, I don't think I'd experienced love until the Doctor._

"Do you suppose the Doctor still loves my mum? After all this time?"

_Time is a strange thing for me to think about. It causes things to shift. But what is, always is. If he ever loved her, then that love still is._

"But if it always is, then it always has been. You say you had other controllers before the Doctor. Before you knew love. So doesn't that mean that there was a time when you didn't know him, and didn't love him?"

_I have always known him. And I have always loved him._

"Hmm. These Time Lords who created you..."

_ Yes?_

"Did they struggle with basic logic algorithms?"

*X*X*X*

Laughter. The Doctor heard it - no, felt it - the moment he stepped through the doors of the Tardis. It made him pause, and stare for a moment at the console. "Well, it's nice to see that you're in a good mood," he said dryly.

It wasn't until he'd sat down in the easy chair of the wide open console room that he realized his facetious remark had elicited silence. Not shamed silence, or discouraged. No, it was as if the Tardis had decided to play coy. He studied her time rotor curiously. That was certainly something new.

Her lights glowed softly, and he could feel the slightly raised temperature in the room - just a fraction of a degree. She was stimulated, communicating. But not with him...

He stood, following his curiosity up the stairs and down the hallway, to a room a few doors down where a little girl was supposed to be asleep. He paused there, and he listened. He heard nothing. Felt nothing. With his fingertips pressed to the door, he realized that the stirring had quieted. Very gently, he pushed the door open and peered inside at the sleeping child, curled underneath the crocheted white quilt that had been given to him by the first queen of Coramouna. She was asleep, a soft smile on her lips. Was she dreaming? The soft glow coming from the walls suggested that she was, in fact, what the fuss was about.

"You like her, don't you?" the Doctor said with amusement as he closed the door again, letting it click softly closed.

But the only answer from the Tardis was the quiet whisper of laughter and childlike happiness.

*X*X*X*

"Is he gone?"

_Yes._

"What do you suppose he wanted?"

_ He's curious about you. He wants to know who you are, where you come from._

"Oh."

_Are you going to tell him?_

"Mum says I'm not supposed to tell anyone."

_You told me._

"That's not fair. You already knew."

_When you tell him, he'll already know._

"Will Mum tell him?"

_ Charley has told him. She has always told him._

"You're not making sense again."

_I make perfect sense. It is only you who does not understand._

"Could you make me understand?"

_Hmm. I'm afraid, Julia, that even I cannot do that..._


	10. Chapter Nine

**CHAPTER NINE**

The Doctor looked up as the door opened and Charley stepped inside, dropping a duffel bag to one side and suitcase on the other. She closed the door behind her before heaving a sigh and pushing a hand back through her hair, eyeing the bags.

"Is that everything?"

She didn't seem startled by his voice. In fact, she didn't even turn. Not immediately, anyway. She was still facing the door as she answered, "Yes."

Wary of initiating any further conversation, the Doctor simply began the dematerialization sequence. Coordinates were already set; it was only a matter of pressing a few buttons and then listening to the smooth _vwooorp!_of the Tardis engines.

Finally, Charley turned around. "Doctor, I'm sorry."

Somehow, he'd known that was what she was going to say. He still wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it or if it was the last thing he wanted her to say. With apologies came discussion. With discussion came pain. He wasn't sure he was ready to face that yet...

"I suppose you're right." She walked crossed acrosstoward the console slowly, hands deep in her pockets. "I'm not a very good liar. I'm no good at hiding how long these years have been, how much they've changed me. And maybe you are. Or maybe nothing's happened in your life; I don't know. But it doesn't matter. That comment about C'Rizz wasn't fair. And anyway, C'Rizz isn't the issue. The issue is me."

He kept his gaze on anything but her as she paused beside the console, withdrawing her hands from her pockets to hug her arms across her chest.

"I'm different, Doctor," she confessed quietly. "There are parts of me now that you wouldn't like. I don't know if I can change them, or even if I want to. They're part of what's kept me safe. And I have to think of Julia now."

"Who is Julia?"

The question clearly caught Charley off guard. For a moment, she just stared at him. He stared back, not bothering to repeat. She'd heard him. She would either answer, or she wouldn't.

"She's my daughter."

"Is she?"

Charley's posture straightened as a note of challenge crept into her tone. "Why don't you ask her?"

"Who's her father?"

"Isn't that a bit personal?"

"She's not human, Charley."

For a moment, Charley didn't respond. She was studying him, evaluating him as if she were trying to determine just how much he knew. "What makes you say that?"

"Because she's talking to my Tardis," the Doctor answered simply. "Listen."

Startled, Charley listened. He couldn't be sure if she could hear it - if she could feel it. It wasn't a conversation to be heard with the ears. It was a whisper in the silence of the soul - the inflection of a tone, the emotion behind a word. The Tardis was humming with energy, and it wasn't because of him. In all of the years and all of the people he had brought into this Tardis, he had never felt her react quite like this.

"Not many races in the universe can do that, Charley," he continued quietly. "Even fewer who appear to have a basically human form."

"So what if she can?" Charley replied, her voice wavering just slightly. "She's... unique. But she's still my daughter. She's... Just look at her! She looks just like me!"

"Who's the father, Charley?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business. After all, it's certainly not you."

The steadiness of his gaze must have made her give that statement a second thought. Her eyes widened. "Doctor! You can't seriously think..."

"I'm asking," he clarified.

"What would it have been, immaculate conception? We never... you know..."

"Oh, I know, Charley. But I have no memory of the time you spent with the other version of me."

"The _other _you!" She seemed well and truly mortified by that thought. "Doctor, you must be joking! Besides, wouldn't she have some sort of Time Lord stamp on her forehead that only you and your people could see? For that matter, wouldn't I? I mean, that's why we never did _that_, isn't it?" There was a mocking anger in her tone as she continued. "Too dangerous, you said. Too embarrassing if any of your people ever saw me."

"That's not what I said," he corrected, his voice low and even.

"No, but it's what you meant." Her anger was mounting, her words more bitter and accusatory by the second. "I'd be 'imprinted' with your... whatever it was! Your people would be able to tell, and you didn't want to have to explain it. Might tarnish your image..."

"My image has been tarnished a thousand times over," he answered, eyes narrowed. "And anyway, what does that have to do with my question?"

"Because you didn't 'imprint' me, Doctor. You have _no _rights to me or to my daughter or -"

"Rights?" the Doctor cried, confused. His frustration was growing. "I'm not claiming any rights; I'm just trying to helpyou!"

"- or to any information about either one of us!"

They stood still, staring at each other for a long moment. Finally, the Doctor sighed, raising a hand to cover his eyes as he shook his head and turned away. That conversation had disintegrated fast, and she hadn't really answered his question. The child wasn't his; she had a fair point that he would've been able to tell if she'd had intercourse with a Time Lord - _any _Time Lord. She hadn't. But she wasn't wearing the imprint of any other species either. Which only meant that the father was from a species that wasn't biologically inclined to mate for life, the way Gallifreyans were before they'd been introduced to the concept of regeneration. And, of course, back when they still mated...

He sighed as he turned back to her. "Charley, I'm not trying to invade your privacy. But it is important that I understand what she is if I'm going to help."

"She's my daughter," she growled, eyes on fire. "And she doesn't need your bloody help."  
"Fine!" Exasperated and tired of this game, the Doctor turned away from her. "So what do you want? Next stop, edge of the universe?"

The time rotor whirred to life as he flipped the dematerialization switch, plunging them into the time vortex. The tense silence lingered for a long moment before she sighed deeply and ran a hand over her face.

"Look," she said quietly, "I'm sorry. But I'm angry with you. I'm really, really angry with you right now."

"So I see. But what I don't understand is _why_?"

"Because you - " She took a deep, calming breath to control her tone before she continued. "You made me live for so long thinking you were dead. So long without anyone to rely any hope of seeing you again. And then you show up again all smiles and excitement like nothing's changed and start interrogating me about who I've slept with!"

He stared at her. "Charley, I couldn't care less who you've slept with! All I wanted to know is what _species _Julia is!"

"And that's precisely my point!"

He stared at her, completely confused. A thousand or so years of watching these humans - and women in particular - and he still could not grasp even half of the drama they concocted. There weren't even words to describe his confusion. He just stared.

She closed her eyes and blew a long, slow breath out before opening them again. "Things have changed, Doctor. So many things have changed."

"Yes, I know. Things have changed for me, too. More things than you could possibly imagine, in fact. But some things haven't changed."

"You're going to tell me you love me, aren't you?"

He blinked, startled by the question and even more by the cold, unfeeling look in her eyes. He opened his mouth to reply, but had to close it again before he found words.

"Well?" she prodded, folding her arms over her chest and watching him coolly. "Go on, then."

He drew in a deep, slow breath, and considered for a long moment how to answer that question honestly before he took an equally long time to decide just how honest he wanted to be.

"Charley, I told you a very long time ago," he finally answered, a bit haltingly, "I don't fall in and out of love. Not in ten years, not in a hundred, not in a thousand. I loved you then, and I love you now. And that doesn't change, whether you're here or you're gone. Someday you'll die and I'll never see you again. And I'll still love you every bit as much as I did the first time I kissed you. That's _why_ I don't fall in love, Charley; that's _why_..."

He stopped himself before he bared his soul any more to her cool gaze, and turned his attention back to the console, setting coordinates to real space, but nowhere in particular. Better just to drift until he had some idea of where he was going.

"I live every moment now for what it's worth," he continued flatly, closing up the gaping, vulnerable hole he'd left in his defenses. "Because there's no way to live this life without accumulating regrets just as fast as I can accumulate the good memories and experiences that go with them. There's no getting around that."

"Is that what I am, then? A regret?"

He sighed deeply and muttered under his breath. "Vapor of vapors, all is vapor..."

"What?"

"No." He spun to face her. "But there's not a day that goes by when I haven't second-guessed the decision to just let you walk away. And I have no idea what you've been through with Julia, but I should've been there a hell of a lot earlier than I was. And I regret that. I'll always regret that."

Her eyes softened just slightly, but he turned away again before her posture slackened. "I've always regretted walking away," she finally admitted, quietly. "Not a day went by when I didn't wonder what would've happened if I'd just stayed in this blasted box. If I'd have thought for a second that you were still alive..."

He dared a quick glance at her as she trailed off, shaking her head and laughing tightly.

"Though there was always that part of me that was afraid that even if you were alive, you wouldn't want me back."

"That's a cop out," he answered quickly. "And you know it."

She blinked, startled. "What?"

"I don't remember what kind of relationship you had with my former incarnation, but I know he wouldn't have kept you around if he didn't want you there. And we both know that when you wrote that letter, you _expected_ me to come looking for you. That's why you specifically told me not to."

Her eyes turned cold again, and her shoulders moved back. "I don't mean you, the Doctor, I mean _you_you. And as for that stupid letter, I wrote that right after I walked away from you. If I had been taken back to Singapore after that explosion instead of some beach, I guarantee I would've torn it up!"

"Yes, but you weren't. And I suppose that's my fault, too."

The sudden, unexpected jolt rocked the Tardis and elicited a wounded whimper from the otherwise steady time rotor. Gripping the edge of the console for balance, Charley looked up at the Doctor with wide eyes as he fought to regain his footing.

"What was that?"

"That, Charley -" he was reaching for the scanner controls as he answered her, "- was something very not-good."

*X*X*X*

The little girl sat bolt upright in bed with a gasp, clutching her chest as she winced in pain. "Oh! Oh, that hurts! Are you alright?"

There was a long silence before the reply came this time. _I am alright. Don't worry about me, my Julia. I am quite well._

"Do you need help? I can help, you know."

_Please, stay where you are. It is safer for you here._

"What about my Mum? Is she safe?"

_Don't worry. She is with my Doctor. She is perfectly safe._

Ignoring the warning to stay put, Julia turned and set her feet on the cold floor just as another powerful explosion shook the walls around her. Pain seared through her tiny frame, and she cried out as she stumbled to the door. "Please! Please open!"

But the door did not open.

Eyes closed, she pressed her hand against it and gasped. "Oh! You're hurt!"

_Please, Julia, do not waste your strength. I am infinite. I heal myself._

"But you're in pain."

_It is not too much for me to bear._

The words fell on deaf ears. Pressing her body tightly against the pockmarked wall just to the right of the door, the little girl shook as she felt the Tardis absorb another burst of pain. After only a few seconds, the child collapsed under the weight of it.

"You are... so large!"

_Please, my Julia..._

The voice was soft and gentle, and completely calm. Kneeling weakly on the floor, unable to stand and barely able to think for the pain, the little girl felt warmth spread through her. She opened her eyes to see a million tiny lights dancing across her arms, making her skin seem to glow with their energy. Drawing in a deep breath, she took them into her lungs, and the pain subsided as her eyes slid closed.

_It is I who protect you, my Julia. Not you who must protect me._

*X*X*X*

"Charley, might I ask what you _did_ to the Viyrans when you left to make them so angry?"

"It's not me they care about, Doctor," Charley called back as another blast sent her sprawling. All around them, furniture was sliding and items were falling from shelves, shattering here and there. "It's Julia!"

"Well, I might have guessed as much."

"She's far more valuable to them than I am."

"They certainly have a funny way of showing it."

"It's the Viyrans, then?"

Gripping the console tightly, the Doctor sought a stance that would hold even as the floor shook and turned his attention to the scanner. Focus... He needed to focus. "Hard to tell," he answered Charley before ducking underneath the console. "The aftershocks of their... whatever they're firing at us is wreaking havoc with the Tardis systems."

"Where are we? Are we inside the Vortex?"

"No."

"Well, can we get there?"

"Possibly. Why?"

"Because the Viyrans can't use the Vortex and even if it's someone else, a lot of weapons that can blow us to smithereens out here won't work inside!"

"Very true, Charley, and I'm impressed that you know that. But you're forgetting one thing."

"What's that?"

"We're in a Type-40 Tardis, the sturdiest and most steadfast ship this side of the Medusa Cascade. And do you know what that means?"

"That we're going to taunt them until they pull out the really big guns?"

"Funny, Charley." He stood again, and smiled at her. "It means that no one is blowing _anyone _to smithereens. Not today, anyway."

"Like I said..."

One last switch flipped, and the Doctor stood back to admire his handiwork - the perfect image of a small, grey ship on the scanner and a tiny blinking red light on the console to signify that they were overriding all local communications wavelengths.

"Now it's time to taunt them," Charley finished under her breath, shaking her head as she held on tighter to the console.

"Uh, excuse me," the Doctor called loudly into the com unit on the console. "I'm addressing the Lainline 4 Seeker that has just opened fire on my ship. Do you read me?"

A long moment of silence followed. The Doctor waited patiently for them to find their communication relays. Then he smiled at the voice that finally came back through the speakers.

"This is Lainline 4 Seeker, flight number 5-2-7-6-3-4, operating under the authority of the Intergalactic Police. Identify yourself."

"Intergalactic Police?" The Doctor laughed. "Really?"

"You are harboring a dangerous fugitive. You will prepare for immediate boarding."

"Uh... Right. Well, naturally, I'm always willing to comply with local law enforcement but how do you intend to dock with my ship, exactly?"

He flipped the transmitter off for a moment, muttering under his breath. "Let them ponder over that for a minute or two."

"Doctor," Charley said, her voice full of worry. "Those aren't really the police..."

"Charlotte Pollard, I'm surprised at you!" he cried in exaggerated indignation. "I don't know whether to be more insulted by the fact that you think I might not realize that or the fact that you think I'd be sitting here chatting with them if I didn't."

"Why _are _we chatting with them, exactly?"

"Because, Charley, they appear to be blocking the nearest entrance to the Time Vortex."

"Well, can't you just go around them?"

"Around them? I could go right _through _them if I wanted to do."

"You will remain stationary upon our approach," the voice from the other ship announced. "We will escort you to the nearest port of call, where you will hand over the Earth human Charlotte Pollard and all cargo belonging to her."

The Doctor switched open the link again. "That sounds like a marvelous plan! You can begin by moving your ship out of the entranceway to the Time Vortex. Then we'll all be on our way."

Another pause. The Doctor smiled to himself as he located coordinates to the next entrance over, only a few light years away.

"Another ship will be arriving momentarily to escort you. If you offer any resistance, we will not hesitate to open fire."

"Oh, please. Have you ever seen a ship like this, Mr. Policeman? A tiny little blue box floating in space? Aren't you wondering how I even have room to stand inside of it? Let alone harbor a fugitive _and _her cargo."

"We are fully armed, and prepared to obliterate your ship if you offer any resistance."

"Fully armed? In a Lainline Seeker? What have you got? Field distortion torpedoes?" He scoffed. "You won't even scratch the paint."

"Are you prepared to comply with our directive?"

The Doctor gave an exaggerated sigh. "Nope. Sorry. Going to have to take a rain check."

He saw the torpedoes fire, and braced himself against the console as he cast a quick glance over at Charley. "You might want to hold onto something."

The jolt from the "big guns" elicited a cry from Charley as she lost her footing, dropping to her knees. But she kept a white-knuckle grip on the console. Far more irritated - offended, even - by the attack than he was intimidated by it, the Doctor hit the dematerialization switch.

"So much for your backup plan," he smirked as the column in the center of the console whirred to life. He even gave a flourished wave as they slowly vanished from the path of more oncoming torpedoes. "Bye bye!"

"What backup plan?" Charley asked tensely as she slowly pulled herself to her feet.

"Lainline Seekers are known for their speed," he explained. "They probably thought that by blocking the nearest access into the Time Vortex, they could initiate a high speed chase."

"Oh? To what end?"

"Who knows? Force me into some complicated time/space event, wait until I run out of fuel..."

"Well _that _wasn't ever going to work." Charley almost laughed in spite of herself.

"Not on me, no. Not on anything with a dematerialization protocol. But who knows what sort of ships they might have chased down in the past."

The Doctor waited until they were safely inside the Vortex to switch off the scanner. Then, he stood still, staring for a moment at the blank screen and considering what had just happened. Charley was watching him; he could feel it. It didn't take long for her to speak up.

"What's wrong?" she asked with a hint of dread.

"Nothing's wrong. We're safe now. In the Vortex, home free."

"Yes. So why the look?"

"Look?"

"You look like something's wrong. But it's like you said, isn't it? They barely scratched the paint."

The Doctor sighed. He wasn't hiding his concern very well. But then, he wasn't really trying. What was the point?

"What worries me is they were prepared to do it."

"Do what?"

"They didn't know my Tardis could sustain those torpedoes. They were prepared to kill their bounty. They didn't even think twice about it."

"Well, we _are _wanted dead or alive."

"That's good to know. But even so, they'd have a hard time retrieving proof of death - and certainly of recovering a body that's been blown to bits."

"They don't need a body. They only need space-time coordinates. The Viyrans will come to watch, to make sure that it's done. To make sure that her biosynthetic implant is completely obliterated."

"Biosynthetic implant?"

"It's how they can track her. But it only has a limited range."

The Doctor frowned. "So if they issued the bounty to find approximate coordinates, why don't they simply pay for those coordinates, then come and take care of you themselves? If they have access to any form of time travel - even if not the Vortex - they can go back to before you left New Earth, no matter how quickly you left. If all they want is to kill you, why are they having so much trouble doing it?"

"It's not me they want dead, Doctor. They want..." She trailed off as if she suddenly realized the silence in the room. "Julia!"

Suddenly reminded of the little girl who surely could not have slept through the jarring attack on the ship, Charley turned and bolted up the steps, taking them two at a time. The Doctor followed - not quite as quickly - up the steps and down the hall, to the room on the right where Charley was already kneeling beside the little girl who was lying on the floor.

"Doctor, what's wrong with her!"

He knelt, calm in spite of Charley's panic. He wasn't terribly worried about the girl. This really was the safest place in the universe, and he would have felt far more of a reaction from the Tardis herself had anything been truly wrong with her. Still, he checked for obvious vital signs before he touched her forehead lightly.

"She's alright," he said quietly. "She's sleeping."

"Julia? Julia, honey, wake up!"

Charley shook her, and her eyes opened, blinking a few times in confusion. "Oh. Was I sleeping?"

"Oh, Julia!"

Charley pulled her close, hugging her tightly. With the look of a much older child who was embarrassed by the fuss, she stared over her mother's shoulder and managed a slight wave once she could get her hand free.

"Hello, Doctor."

He smiled back, amused, and returned the wave. "Hello, Julia."

"Tardis is very kind."

"What?" Charley asked, startled and confused by the simple statement.

But Julia only smiled like she had a secret as the Doctor nodded quietly. "Yes," he agreed with a smile of his own. "Yes, she is."


	11. Chapter Ten

**CHAPTER TEN**

The door opened at her touch, and the dim lights slowly rose as she stepped inside.

_"Will this do?"_

_ "Oh, Doctor, it's beautiful!" She laughed as she turned in a circle and looked around at the elegant furniture - the four post bed made of dark wood and matching wardrobe, both topped with delicate white lace. "There's just one thing I don't understand."_

_ "What?"_

_ She turned back to him and set her hands on her hips. "How on earth did you get that wardrobe through the door!"_

The room was cold now, and grey. The lace was crumpled on the floor in a pile with broken glass and dead flowers - the vase that had been sitting on the bedside table.

_"These are for you."_

_ "Thank you, Doctor." She buried her face in the bouquet and breathed deeply. "They smell wonderful!"_

The wardrobe was on its side, its door broken, the few dresses she'd left inside lying on the floor in a messy heap. The quiet squeak of her sneakers on the hard floor turned to a crunching sound as she stepped on more broken glass on her way over to the green dress that had caught her eye.

_"Goodness, Charley, how did you breathe in all this?" the Doctor asked as he reached inside the layers of her clothing, underneath the green dress, nimble fingers working as quickly as he could to unthread the second corset._

_ "Not very well," she admitted._

_ "No doubt. Arms up."_

This room was filled with memories that were both simple and shockingly intense at the same time. Every item told a story, and every memory had a place. Even those that she'd forgotten until just now.

_"Stay with me. Please?"_

_ The Doctor sighed contentedly as he held her tighter, skin against skin beneath the warmth of the blankets. "I'll stay as long as you like, Charley."_

It was hard to tell how many nights she'd fallen asleep in this room, in this bed. It was hard to count how many times he had fallen asleep beside her.

_"I've lived my whole live by chance," the Doctor whispered, stroking her hair gently. "I left Gallifrey on a whim. I found my Tardis by chance. In fact, I've met most of my companions by chance. Seen so many worlds as if by a roll of the dice. Good things happen by chance. I met you by chance."_

_ "Take a chance, then? Some planet, somewhere, wherever we happen to end up?"_

_ "Take a chance!" he declared with an enthusiastic smile. "Yes! Set all the Tardis controls to 'whatever'. One last adventure for the team! Let the Tardis take us... home."_

Time had been so distorted here, in the Tardis. There were no Christmases or birthdays to mark the passage of months and years. If she had to guess, she'd probably been here a few years - two or three, perhaps. In the other Tardis, with the other Doctor, it probably hadn't been half as long. A few months, maybe...

_ "I'm going to close my eyes, Doctor, and count to ten."_

She stood, clutching the green dress to her chest as she looked around her. The room was in chaos, the items she'd left behind broken and scattered in an untidy mess, as if a hurricane had blown through. Her journal, facedown and open beside the bed.

_"Tales of an Edwardian Adventuress, by Charlotte Ellsworth Pollard. Chapter one."_

A holographic memory card from the Darsuthian Falls.

_"Oh, please, Doctor, can't we go see it!"_

A green and purple baseball cap.

_"Here, C'Rizz, wear this. It'll help you to blend in."_

_ "Blending in has never been my problem, Charlotte. The question is what to blend _with_."_

_ "I think purple and green would look very fetching on you!"_

She wasn't aware that she was being watched until she happened to glance in the direction of the door and saw the Doctor watching her.

"Oh!" Started, she turned to face him. "Sorry. I didn't realize you were there."

He smiled tightly as he stepped inside, avoiding the broken glass. "I'm not intruding, am I?"

"No." She looked back down at the dress, then sighed as she let it drop. "I was just... remembering."

"Remembering," he repeated, coming closer. "Are you remembering anything in particular?"

"No."

He stopped to pick up the dress at her feet, and shuffled it until he held it up by the shoulders, against her. Then he smiled. "It still suits you, I think. Even with the darker hair."

She laughed tightly. "It's been a very long time since I've worn anything that pretty."

"Has it really? What a shame."

She remained still as he moved behind her, but glanced over her shoulder at him as he instructed, "Lift your arms."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said..." He leaned in closer, dropping his voice against her ear. That enticing voice he did so well... "Arms up."

_"What about C'Rizz?"_

_ "What about him?"_

_ "Won't he...? I mean, he'll be expecting you back."_

_ The Doctor chuckled. "Charley, I would be very surprised if C'Rizz doesn't already know exactly what was on both our minds when you asked me to help take your clothes off."_

She lifted her arms slowly, warily, and was only slightly surprised when the dress fell over her arms, past her head, and down the length of her body, right over the top of her clothes. Turning to stare in the broken mirror on the back of the door, she blinked in surprise. "I... remember this dress being a lot tighter," she admitted.

"You were a lot healthier then." He smoothed out the dress on her sides and left his hands resting lightly on her hips for a moment. "But we'll soon fix that."

Before she had a chance to feel uneasy about just how close he was, he'd moved away. He was circling the room, looking over the bits and pieces of a life she'd left behind. She could only imagine how her room had ended up like this - whether _he _had thrown things about or it had been some other force entirely. But given the way he was looking around, this wasn't the first time he'd seen it.

"I'm surprised that I remember so much," she said hesitantly, bending down to pick up a broken photo frame. An artist's rendition - a quick pencil sketch in a café. She smiled as she blew the shards of glass away from the paper, and set it upright on the bedside table. "It's been so long..."

"How long?" he asked. "How long ago did you leave my former incarnation?"

"Oh, I don't even know. Years." She sighed. "It feels like lifetimes."

"The Viyrans kept you in stasis."

"Yes. They only woke me up when they needed me."

"Needed you for what?"

She glanced sidelong at him. He was watching her closely, in spite of the fact that he looked so deceptively relaxed. Seeing him there - different but the same - she hardly knew what to think, what to feel. She was angry. But that anger was fading. In its place was confusion, and a maelstrom of other emotions she didn't even know what to do with. He said he still loved her. But he didn't even know her anymore. What she'd done, who she was. And she didn't want him to know. _She _didn't even want to know.

"Why now, Doctor?" she finally asked, shaking her head slightly in confusion. It was one of the many questions she really needed to have answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Why, after all this time, did you come looking for me?"

"Why did you tell me not to?"

She drew in a deep breath, and looked away. She supposed, if she was honest, that she owed him at least that. "I was angry," she answered quietly. "After C'Rizz and... Maybe I was stupid to even write it in the first place. But I was afraid. I was afraid because I loved you. And because, when I thought about it, after the way things ended with C'Rizz..."

She looked up at him and drew in a shaky breath, remembering the way she'd cried when she wrote those words. She remembered how hard it had been, but how her mind had been made up. She'd wanted him to go. But she'd had no idea how much her heart would ache or how many tears she would cry once he was gone.

"I knew you couldn't love me the way that I loved you," she choked. "You say you did - you do... But you were still worrying about what your people think."

He sighed as he looked away. "Charley, if you only knew how little I care about what my people think..."

"When I saw him die," she continued, ignoring the excuse, "and you moved on like it was nothing, like you'd never felt anything for him, like he wasn't even your friend..."

She trailed off, shaking her head and biting back the tears, eyes shut tight. But he didn't interrupt. He didn't offer any good explanation, or even a not-so-good one. He just waited for her to bring her thoughts under control. And finally, she looked back up at him.

"What made you change your mind?" she demanded.

"About what?"

"About finding me. If you didn't because I'd asked you not to, then what made you change your mind?"

"Memories." He surveyed the larger pieces of the chair that had been used to break the mirror, determined it was too shaky to sit in, and opted to sit down on the edge of the bed. "I started remembering things about you and my younger self."

"What memories?"

"Just fragments of things you'd said. Enough to tell me that the last time I saw you wasn't the last time you saw me. I don't know whether I believed you'd be happy to see me, but I had enough to think that you'd at least give me a chance."

"Doctor, you were my best friend. How could I not be happy to see you?"

"Well, if you are, you've had a very curious way of showing it."

She caught the accusatory words that immediately sprang to mind before they escaped, and clamped her jaw tight against them. The Doctor raised a brow questioningly, but she didn't answer. She only closed her eyes and shook her head until she was sure that nothing angry would come out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she finally said.

He didn't reply. Drawing in a deep breath, she finally managed to drag her eyes back to him. "Please tell me you haven't been alone all this time."

"No," he said with an artificial tone that made her immediately wary of the truth that lay behind it. "Not alone."

"Who did you travel with?" In spite of her wariness, she sat down on the bed beside him. "Tell me about them. Tell me how long it's been, first."

"Since the Cybermen?"

She nodded.

"Oh, uh..." He thought for a moment. "For me? Or in relative time?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Well, yes. When we were in the Divergent Universe, about twenty years of relative time passed, but only a few months for us."

"Your time, then. How long has it felt?"

"Oh, about... seven hundred years, give or take a decade."

Her eyes widened. "Doctor, you're not serious!"

"To be fair, I can't really _count _all those years. According to Gallifreyan relative time, it's only been about fifteen. But it's _felt_ every moment of seven hundred."

She was awestruck. "Seven hundred years," she repeated.

"Yes."

"You came back for me after seven _hundred_ years?"

He looked away, as if pondering the pieces of a broken lamp on the floor with great interest.

"I... I don't even know what to say to that, Doctor."

"I spent about six hundred of those years stranded on a planet called Orbis."

"I... I see."

"I'd never thought about what it would be like to not see another humanoid for six hundred years. Now _that _can wreak havoc with your personality."

"I... yes. I can imagine."

"Are you alright?"

She wasn't alright. The realization that he had been away for seven hundred years filled her with a sense of guilt she didn't know what to do with.

"Oh, Doctor, I feel just horrible now."

"Why?"

"Those things I said..."

He looked away.

"I had no idea... I mean, I can't imagine. Seven hundred years may as well be eternity for me." She took another breath and looked up at him. "Have they been good? I mean... have you been happy?"

The shadow that passed over his eyes was eerie. Even more eerie was the way it infected his tone as he answered her. "I was," he said quietly. "For a while."

She swallowed hard. "What happened?"

He didn't answer right away. In the long, still silence that followed, he turned and scooted up towards the head of the bed, leaning back against the elegantly carved headboard. The look in his eyes was so far away, he might as well have moved to the other end of the galaxy. When he finally spoke, low and sad, he had her full attention.

"In my last body, there was a girl who travelled with me. Her name was Ace."

Shifting a bit awkwardly in the formal dress of incalculable monetary value, Charley moved up to sit beside him. She wasn't sure why he was talking about his previous incarnation when she'd asked about his present, but she was happy to listen. Leaning her shoulder on the wood, she curled her legs up close to her.

"That wasn't actually her real name. But that was what she wanted to be called. Most of the time. She was sixteen when I met her, and thirty-one when she left."

Charley did the math quickly, then found herself quietly pondering what the girl must have been like who'd travelled with the Doctor for half of her life.

"I remember being... so shocked when she walked away. Devastated. I had thought she would never leave. She was like a daughter to me but... more than that, too. A friend, a partner, someone I could always count on."

He paused for a long moment, and Charley let the silence settle before she asked the obvious question. "Why did she leave?"

"In the end, she left because I... I kept things from her. I manipulated her. I trusted her implicitly but I didn't tell her things. What I was thinking, what I was planning... what I was doing. Her friend died - _our _friend; he traveled with us. And shortly after that, she was gone too. She walked out of the Tardis - not unlike you did, when C'Rizz died. But she never looked back. Not once."

Charley nodded slowly, adding his story to the list of reasons why he wouldn't have looked for her if he'd truly believed she meant to be gone for good.

"I suppose, in a way... that broke my heart. And I swore then that I would try not to do those things that shut her out, made her feel like I was playing her and forcing her to experience and to face and to do things. I swore to be more open, more honest, and I've tried. I really have tried, Charley. Even when it's very difficult."

"I believe you," she answered quietly. "You've always been pretty honest with me."

"But some things... some things slip through the cracks."

Charley frowned, but didn't speak, letting him gather his thoughts before he continued.

"Now, Lucie... Lucie Miller." He actually smiled as he said her name. "Sometimes I feel like I hardly knew her. She could always surprise me, right to the end. She was a different sort of person but in a lot of ways... she reminded me of Ace. In need of guidance, maybe, but still perfectly capable of taking care of herself."

"And like a daughter to you?"

"No," he answered reflectively. "She wouldn't have fit that role. I... showed her a lot of things, but she broadened my mind, too. I didn't 'raise' her the way I felt I'd raised Ace."

"So... what's the connection?"

He sighed deeply. "I should've been more careful. But I wasn't. I did the same thing to her that I did to Ace. I lied to her. I hid things from her. With the best intentions, of course. But in the end, it didn't matter. We didn't have fifteen years worth of friendship behind us - fifteen years worth of reasons why she should forgive me, why she should trust me. So she left."

Charley watched him for a long moment. But when he didn't continue, she finally spoke. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah."

"Where did you leave her? Or... where did she leave you, rather."

"Earth." He swallowed hard. "I left her on Earth with -"

The way he choked and the pain in his eyes made it clear that there was more to this story. More that he was not telling her. But he finally finished, quickly.

"With a family member."

She raised a brow. "You have family on Earth?"

"Yes."

She waited for him to continue. But he didn't. Instead, he blinked rapidly a few times, and forced a very fake smile as he glanced at her. Her heart broke for him, in spite of the fact that she didn't know why, and she moved closer, resting her head comfortably on his shoulder as she hugged him. The arm that circled her shoulders held her tight and for a moment, she felt stronger than she had in years. The two of them together, leaning on each other... It may not be practical and it certainly wasn't permanent. But it felt incredibly good, nonetheless.

"Doctor?"

"Yes, Charley?"

She opened her eyes, and stared at the remnants of a life she'd laid to rest, broken in pieces around the room. "I might be angry... But I _have_ missed you."

He hesitated, then slowly turned his face and kissed the top of her hair in a chaste but intimate gesture. "I've missed you, too," he admitted softly.

She sighed as she closed her eyes and breathed deep, suddenly realizing how tired she was. And for the first time in what felt like forever, drifting in the Vortex and surrounded by the safety of the Doctor and his Tardis, she let herself slip into a deep, comfortable sleep.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

The Doctor drew in a sharp breath as his eyes opened to an unfamiliar room. A moment of disorientation was followed by a sudden awareness that he wasn't alone, and he sat up slowly. He was careful not to disturb the sleeping figure beside him any more than necessary. As she stirred, he touched her forehead gently, reassuringly.

"Shh... it's alright, Charley. Sleep."

She needed the sleep far more than he did.

He slipped away from her quietly, out into the hallway and back toward the control room. But he paused after only a few steps, and looked back, towards the room where Julia was asleep. The calm stillness in the hallway, the feeling of contentment, reassured him that she was sleeping peacefully. He smiled to himself as he considered it. The Tardis had not taken so kindly to a visitor in... well... ever. What was she? Certainly not human...

Never one to turn his back on a mystery - especially when it was staring him straight in the face - he approached her door quietly. He was careful not to wake her as he opened the door and stepped inside. The light from the walls glowed softly, illuminating the near-empty room in a warm, shadowy glow. His eyes lingered on the sleeping child on the bed, then the stuffed bear that had fallen to the floor. She had been snuggled close to it since the moment Charley had given it to her. It seemed wrong to see it on the floor.

Taking a few steps closer, he reached down to pick up the stuffed animal. The moment his fingers touched it, the images flashed across his mind, too fast and too confused to tell them apart. A hundred pictures, a hundred emotions, all of them hitting at once. War and blood, sickness and disease, children with sunken eyes and distended bellies, open wounds and gaping sores. He dropped the toy reflexively and, took a stumbling step back, eyes wide.

"Now, that's very interesting," he muttered under his breath. "Some sort of telepathic relay, but is it only a trigger to my own suppressed memories of death and destruction or is it actually a conduit for the contents of her mind? I'd hate to think of the things she's seen, in the latter case."

He stared at the little girl for a long moment, sleeping peacefully. The walls of the Tardis seemed to glow around her, interacting with her energy signature. Curious, the Doctor reached into his pocket for his screwdriver, scanning her life signs with interest.

"You're right, Doctor."

The voice from the doorway startled him, and he spun to see Charley leaning against the frame, arms crossed loosely over her chest. She'd taken off the green dress and was standing in her ripped jeans and faded T-shirt. She looked awake and alert, as if a massive shot of adrenaline had driven her from her sleep.

"She's not human."

"I'd say that much is obvious," he answered. "Is that also why she doesn't age?"

Charley raised a brow. "How do you know that?"

She probably expected him to refer to the high tech gadgetry of the Tardis for an answer. And she was right; the ship's nanites had been given more than enough time by now to gain information for a clinical assessment of her genetic structure and state of health. But sometimes the simplest observations were the best. As he replaced the screwdriver in his pocket, he withdrew the photograph in its place and held it out towards her.

"You're at least five years younger in this photo," he said quietly. "She's obviously not."

"Oh."

He held out the photo until she took it, then cast another glance at the child. "But clearly she shares your DNA. So who is she?"

Charley sighed, then quietly stepped past him. She knelt at the side of the bed and gently stroked the child's hair back from her closed eyes. Her eyes drifted to the stuffed bear on the floor - the one the Doctor had dropped again - and she took a moment to pick it up. He watched her closely as she hesitated - even winced - the moment her fingers touched it. She set it next to the sleeping girl, and watched as the child smiled in her sleep, pulling the stuffed animal closer.

"She's... Well, it's difficult to explain."

"Well, why don't I make us another cup of tea," he suggested. "Then you can tell me more of your story."

*X*X*X*

"Tardis?"

_Yes, my Julia?_

"How did you grow to be so big?"

_I don't know. I suppose I've never thought about it. I was always this big._

"Mum says I should eat healthy foods and get lots of rest so that I can be big like her."

_Your Mum is right._

"Except I will never be big like her, will I?"

_Never is a very long time._

"You don't want to tell me. But it's alright. I already know. I cannot get bigger. I cannot grow older. I will be like this forever."

_Forever is a very long time, too. Longer than you know. You should not use words when you do not understand their meaning._

"Do you mean I might not be this small forever?"

_Few things last forever. You are not one of those few things._

"I will die then?"

_That is a very dreary question._

"I understand what it means to die. But I don't think I will ever experience it. Things die when they are broken. And I was not made to be broken."

_No, indeed. It seems you are made to fix others._

*X*X*X*

"How about we start with species," the Doctor suggested as he set Charley's tea in front of her, then sat down in the chair across the table.

"It's not that simple, Doctor," Charley said softly, wrapping her hands around her mug. "She's unique."

"Well, clearly she's related to you. As you said, she looks just like you."

"Identical, in fact. Her physical appearance was taken from my DNA."

"By the Viyrans?"

"Yes."

"So she was created in their laboratories."

"Yes."

"For what purpose?"

"To heal. Or, rather, to be a cure."

"A cure for what?"

"For anything. Everything . Well, ideally. They formed her DNA from the chains of a dozen different healing races with the thought that she would be able to use all of her abilities to heal herself. Then they infected her with every disease in their arsenal."

The Doctor frowned, but let her continue.

"They used her to develop cures, vaccines, for hundreds of diseases. Once infected, her body would heal the infection. She would develop an immunity, and they could use her blood to manufacture a cure."

"Not a bad idea, all things considered. Though I'm not sure I agree with the general premise of infecting a child with every disease in the universe."

Charley took a sip from her tea and stared into the mug for a moment. "She was never intended to be a child. They gave her a human form, but her mind and her... well, _everything _else... She has no emotion, no feeling."

"Well, that's not entirely true," the Doctor created. "In order to be able to speak to my Tardis, she has empathy at the very least. And that's closely related to emotion."

"She has empathy because she was programmed with it. Empathy as a communication tool that supersedes language barriers. It would allow her to communicate with her intended... patient, even if they couldn't tell her what was wrong."

"Which explains why she's been so comfortable using it to communicate with my Tardis," he concluded in amazement. "Funny, I never thought of that. I've been around all sorts of healing races that use that technique and it never occurred to me that they would be able to use it to dialogue with the Tardis."

Charley sighed, and took another sip. "They gave her intelligence; she can be taughtappropriate responses to the empathy she shares with others. That's what I've been working on for so many years. But she doesn't feel. She wasn't supposed to. She was supposed to be a lab rat."

"So what went wrong?" the Doctor asked.

"She got worn out. Her body could only take so much before she stopped being able to fight off all of the diseases they kept exposing her to. God knows what she's infected with now. Probably a thousand different things. She has enough strength to keep them from manifesting, but they're all dormant inside of her. It's why the Viyrans want her dead. She's carrying all of the diseases they're trying to wipe out."

"And that's why you ran," the Doctor guessed. "Because they were going to kill her."

Charley nodded and looked up at him. "To them, she's not even a living thing. Much less a child. And even if she were, I've seen the Viyrans wipe out entire planets because of a miniscule chance of some dormant infection spreading. Things that only a few people on the whole planet even have the _potential_ to become infected with. They don't care how many people they kill."

"They certainly sound like a friendly bunch."

"As far as they're concerned, everywhere she goes, she risks spreading the diseases they infected her with. As long as she is what she is - as long as she _could_ be carrying any number of things they created her to carry - she's a threat to their mission of universal sterilization."

"Good for you, Charley!"

She blinked, startled by his sudden energy and the way he was smiling broadly at her.

"No better reason to go on the run from bounty hunters. At least, none that I can think of. But there's still one thing that doesn't make sense."

"What?"

"I still don't understand why they're having such difficulty finding you. The Viyrans may have only rudimentary time travel capabilities compared to the Tardis, but they could still go back on your timeline. Any bounty hunter who finds you could give them coordinates and they could follow those coordinates right to you, no matter how quickly you left."

"Because of the Time Lords."

The Doctor stared at her, confused. "The Time Lords? What do you mean?"

"Well, it's like you said, Doctor. I'm a complicated space-time event. They know it. In fact, they've always known it. They were issued a warning, a very long time ago, that if they deliberately create a paradox - around me or anything else - in the process of carrying out their mission, their right to act autonomously would be revoked. The Web of Time is already damaged around them. Having been given that warning, any _intentional_ damage done to it would be tantamount to declaring war on the Time Lords."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "A war?"

"Mind you, I don't know how much of that is true. About the damage to the Web of Time, that is. And I'd hate to think that the Time Lords would actually initiate a retaliatory _war_. But the Viyrans have certainly taken note of it. And trust me, they don't want another war. They're hardly equipped for it."

"Hmm." The Doctor took a moment to ponder the odds. "When it comes to politics, the Time Lords generally don't say things they don't mean. And I know Romana is looking for a good reason to intervene on behalf of the races they slaughter in their legally protected genocide. If she could prove a deliberate attack on the Web of Time, it wouldn't be hard to gain the support of the other temporal powers against them."

"That's why the Viyrans have offered the bounty. They can't kill me, and they can't kill Julia without getting through me first. But if a bounty hunter happens to kill us both, or if there's some unfortunate accident that gives them plausible deniability..."

"Hmm, I see your point." The Doctor considered the risk for a moment, then smiled again. "Well, guess it's good I found you then."

"Is it?"

He smiled as he sipped his tea. "There's not a bounty hunter in the universe who can keep up with the Tardis, Charlotte Pollard. And as long as you're with me, you have nothing to -"

The explosion and subsequent rattling of the Tardis walls was, this time, followed by the sound of the cloister bell. Instantly, the Doctor was on his feet. "What! Twice in one day?"

"We're not moving, Doctor," Charley reminded him, following on his heels as he headed quickly out into the hallway and toward the control room. "And every bounty hunter for light years in any direction knows that if they bring me in, they'll never have to work again."

"Yes, but twice in one day? _Three _times if you count that fiasco on New Earth!"

"Word travels fast. By now, half the circuit probably knows I'm with you."

"Twice!" he cried indignantly. "Twice in one day!"

*X*X*X*

"Tardis, why are you making that sound?"

_It is a warning. For my Doctor._

"What sort of warning?"

_My defenses are compromised. We are vulnerable to attack._

"Is that why you hurt?"

_No. I hurt because the time distortion field triggered by the explosion of neutralized dectronic energy within my range of perceptive recording in the Time Vortex has caused a partial collapse of my architectural matrix and is placing undue strain on the manifest dimensional overdrive relay._

"Oh. Can I fix that?"

_No, Julia. I'm afraid not._

"Oh. But you can fix it, right?"

_No._

"Oh. Who will fix it?"

_My Doctor will fix it._

"Oh! Good! But... Does that mean we are in danger until he fixes you?"

_ You are in danger by your nature of being._

"Yes. I know. Tardis?"

_Yes, Julia?_

"The explosion of neutralized dectronic energy... was it caused by a Viyran ship?"

_ ..._

"Never mind. You don't need to answer. I can tell that it was. I can sense they are nearby."

_Don't worry, my Julia. _

"What is worry?"

_Yes, of course. You don't worry, do you?_

"Tardis, will you protect my mum?"

_I will protect you _and _your mum. And my Doctor will find a safe place for us all._

"Do you think so?"

_I do not have to think, my Julia. I know it to be true._

*X*X*X*

The Doctor bounded down the steps ahead of Charley and skidded over to the console, his brow creased with worry as he called up the image on the scanner. "Hmm... time distortion in the Vortex. Now _that's _not a very good way to keep a low profile."

"A low profile?" Charley came closer, looking over his shoulder. She couldn't quite mask her gasp as she saw the ship that was causing the cloister bell to ring. "Who are they?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I don't recognize the ship."

His eyes dropped to the console, hands flittering over the controls as he tried to raise the Tardis' shields and instead received a shower of hot sparks that made him jump back. "Ow! Hmm, note to self, one disadvantage to the new outfit."

"What?" Charley asked, both alarmed and confused. "What is?"

"Fewer layers of protection." He poked his head under the console. "Ah, so that's what's wrong..."

"Doctor..."

"The manifest dimensional overdrive relay is damaged. But that wouldn't be the _cause_ so much as the... Oh, yes, of course!"

"Doctor..."

"The explosion in the Vortex caused a time distortion field! Oh, now, that's good. Create a massive time distortion to mask the secondary explosion! The Time Lords would be sorting through the mess for the next hundred years at least, just to get any kind of -"

"Doctor!"

The tension and irritation in Charley's voice interrupted the Doctor's thoughts, and he turned to stare at her. She took a breath, let it out, and spoke as calmly as she could manage.

"Whatever's wrong, just _fix_ it, will you? Those big guns look like they're getting ready to open fire!"

"What!" He looked up at the scanner, saw the portals slowly opening for the displacement beam projectors, and frowned. Then he stood up straight and called loudly to the scanner, in spite of the fact that there was clearly no open communication to the other ship. "Okay, you lot! Not gonna lie, you played this hand brilliantly. If I were anyone else, I might actually be impressed. But I'm not beaten yet."

He leaned across the console and pointed. "Charley, press that button with one hand and hold on for dear life with the other. Let's see if your time machines can do _this_!"


	13. Chapter Twelve

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

It had been a while since the Doctor had pushed the Tardis that hard. And it showed. He'd fried several of the circuits under the console, and that was to say nothing of the damage the explosions had probably done to her exterior. Her manifest dimensional overdrive relay had cracked under the pressure of the time distortion, but it was repairable. Thankfully, he always kept a spare set of most of her parts, or at least what could serve as a band aid to fix whatever was damaged.

The maneuver had been as brilliant as it was informative. He was dealing with a wide range of pursuers who operated a wide range of technology. They were willing to play dirty, and willing to take a risk. But it seemed, at least at first glance, that even the bounty hunters were trying to stay off the Time Lords' radar.

The time distortion caused by their dectronic energy weapons had caused a ripple in the Vortex. It wasn't dangerous in and of itself; those sort of glitches happened all the time by purely natural process. But where they occurred, any time sensitive information was bound to be corrupted. Depending on the size of the disruption, the events might as well have been completely untraceable. And with no evidence to submit, the Time Lords never would have even known what had happened to Charlotte Pollard. Or Julia. Or the Doctor, for that matter.

The thought made him frown deeply. From what information he'd gathered in the Matrix, and from Romana, the Viyrans were certainly not the most pleasant race in the universe. But they were not inherently evil. They were amoral; completely lacking in conscience. Like a machine that did what it was programmed to do, they sought out the diseases that had spread from the Amethyst Station and destroyed them. They didn't seek universal domination, like the Daleks. They didn't want to make everything conform to them, like the Cybermen. They simply did what they were created to do, and bore no ill will toward the planets and people they decimated.

Now the Doctor was in their line of fire. That wasn't a bad thing and certainly not an unexpected one. But he wasn't foolish enough to think that he would distract them for long. They would not be motivated by their anger at his persistence in foiling them. They would not be beaten by their reliance upon a false logic. Their logic was sound, and their purpose was clear. Julia was a threat; her very existence was a danger to the universe. If the readings from the Tardis were correct, there was no cure for the disease she carried. She _was _the disease. Infection was written into her genetic code. No matter how healthy she looked on the outside, she was teeming with sickness on the inside.

How to eliminate the threat of a disease without destroying it...

He didn't realize he was being watched. Not right away. But from where the little girl was standing, at the bottom of the steps, she must have entered the room a while ago. With her stuffed bear hanging from one hand, almost brushing the floor, head tipped curiously as she watched him, she looked for all the world like a normal, blond haired three-year-old - a spitting image of Charley.

"Hello, Julia."

She tipped her head the other way, and toed the ground, swinging the bear slightly. "Mum says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Your mum is right. What makes me a stranger?"

"I don't know your name."

"I'm the Doctor. It's very nice to meet you."

"I don't know where you live."

"I live here." He gestured around the enormous console room. "This is my home. My Tardis."

"I don't know your family."

"You know my Tardis. She's the closest thing to family I have, I think."

Julia smiled. "Then I suppose you're not a stranger."

"I suppose not."

She came closer, letting her eyes wander over the Tardis console. "She is hurt."

"Not too badly. Nothing I can't fix."

"And will she fix you?"

"Fix me?" he asked curiously.

The little girl looked up at him innocently. "You're hurt, too."

The Doctor blinked, startled. "Am I?" He did a quick check and realized the nagging burn on his chest. He must have gotten it from the release of overloaded harmonic energy when the console had sparked earlier. It wasn't terribly painful. He wouldn't have even remembered if she hadn't pointed it out. "I didn't notice."

Julia smiled softly - a look that was very strange for a child so young - and propped her bear against the pillar. Then, taking a step closer, she tugged on his jacket. "May I see?"

Curious, he knelt down in front of her so that they were eye to eye. With all the care of a well trained nurse, she delicately pushed his jacket off of his shoulders, then lifted his shirt. He maneuvered his arms, ducking his head so that she could raise it off of him. She stood on her toes for the few extra inches, and smiled patiently at him as she folded it neatly and set it beside her bear.

He was watching her. She was studying the tiny energy burn on his chest. "Julia?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"May I ask you about your teddy bear?"

"What about him?"

"Does he have a name?"

"His name is Roger."

"That's a lovely name. Did you give it to him?"

"Mum did."

"I see. Where did you get him?"

"Mum gave him to me. She said he's very special."

"Did she tell you what makes him special?"

He felt her fingers prodding gently at the burn. But instead of the expected stinging sensation, he felt soft warmth spread over his skin. He looked down, and saw the soft orange glow of his body's own regenerative energy smoothing over the wound. He raised a brow as she stepped away and smiled. "There. Does that feel better?"

"That's very good, Julia," he said, touching his finger to the new skin where the burn had been. What a fascinating technique... "Do you know how you did that?"

"Flesh is designed to heal itself as long as it is living, and the damage is not too extensive. I merely accelerated the normal healing process of the cells in your body."

"How?"

She shrugged. "I just talked to them."

His eyes widened slightly. "To the cells?"

She nodded.

"Julia, that's fascinating. You are an amazing little girl; do you know that?"

She smiled. "Yes."

He cast a glance at the stuffed animal still watching them. "Now, about your bear..."

She toed the floor, looking away. "I can... talk to him. And stuff."

"What do you talk to him about?"

She eyed him again and, as if she'd determined he wasn't a threat, gave another smile. "Mum got him for me so that I could learn to feel things. Like she feels for me."

"Does it help?"

"I think so. _He _feels things. I understand how he feels things better than I understand how Mum does.

He makes sense."

"Does he talk to you?"

"Only when I make him talk."

"And how do you do that?"

"I don't know. I just do."

"Does he have his own voice, or is it just you pretending when he talks to you?"

"He has whatever voice I give him." She smiled again. "I could make him talk like Tardis."

His brows shot up. "Could you now? That would be very interesting. May I see that?"

She hesitated, then turned and picked up the bear. As she turned back to the Doctor, she frowned. "Could I make him talk like you instead?"

"Of course," he answered cautiously, but immeasurably curious. "But why me?"

Julia smiled as she held out the bear in his direction. "Because you feel many things."

"I do?"

"Yes. About the Daleks and Lucie Miller."

The Doctor froze.

"Or about Susan and Alex. You feel more things than anyone Roger has ever touched. You feel things about my mum. About C'Rizz. About Hex, and Ace. Adric. Even Jamie and Zoe, after all these years. Oh, you feel so many things! If only I could feel so many amazing things!"

Her broad smile slowly fell as the Doctor stared at her in awestruck shock. The memories were racing back to him. The most intense failures of his past lives, the most horrible moments of death and pain and rejection and loss. She had named them all like they were so many items on a grocery list. The emotions that any one of those names elicited in him was enough cloud his vision and make his eyes sting. But she wasn't finished.

"You don't even want to feel them," she said quietly, still holding the bear out in his direction. "I find that very strange. You drink things to make the feelings go away. You throw things, break things, yell at Tardis. All because you feel so much, because you don't want to feel. And I don't understand. I should be so lucky as to feel so much. Why don't you want to feel?"

The Doctor was frozen in place as more recent memories came to mind. Blinded by pain and anger - at himself, at the Daleks, at the universe as a whole - he had destroyed pieces of himself and pieces of his lives... anything to make the pain go away. Eyes stinging, he blinked rapidly a few times to keep the tears from overflowing, then drew in a sharp breath. "I..."

"Go on," Julia urged, shaking the bear just slightly, encouraging him to take it.

He swallowed hard, regarding the harmless looking stuffed animal for a moment longer as if it were a deadly snake. He had touched it once, and he hadn't liked what he saw then. Had it - had _she _- somehow used that touch to gain access to all of the memories on her agonizingly painful list? He didn't even want to think of what might be drawn to the surface if he touched it again.

"It's alright," Julia said reassuringly. "Take him. Please."

Drawing in a deep breath, he steeled himself. Then, finally, he reached out and closed his fist around the stuffed animal.

_ "Grandfather, you haven't changed. Irresponsible as ever."_

_ "How do you mean?" _

_ Raising a brow, daring him to deny it, Susan took a step forward. "The fluid link in the Dalek city?"_

_ The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, that."_

Laughter and presents. Christmas in the Tardis. Dinner and the spark in Lucie's eye as she winked at Alex across the table.

_ "I saw that..."_

_ "Oh, come off it, mate!" Lucie laughed. "You sound like me dad!"_

Lucie Miller...

_"And just what, may I ask, is that supposed to be?"_

_ "Wha?" she challenged. "You never heard dance music before?"_

_ "That is not dance music. I'm not sure it even qualifies as music, period."_

_ She smirked as she turned her back to him, raised her arms above her head, and continued in perfect step to the over-bassed, booming sound echoing in the control room. She had to yell to be heard as she laughed over her shoulder. "Don't knock it 'til you try it!"_

Older memories. Earlier Tardis, with white walls...

_ "Doctor!" Ace's voice actually squeaked - something it never did - as she called for him. "Doctor, help!"_

_ The Doctor curiously poked his head into the kitchen at the apparent cries of distress. _

_ "Oh, Doctor, help!" Hex mocked as he stood at the sink with the spray hose on full blast, pointed directly at Ace. He was covered in flour, with white globs of what looked like ice cream on his hair and shirt and broken eggs crunching under his feet. "Help, please, I can't take any of my own medicine!"_

_ "So this is what happens when I ask you two to bake a cake."_

_ Ace shrieked again and laughed loudly, diving for the fridge and opening the door to use as a shield. Smiling to himself at the sheer amount of glee that filled the room, the Doctor walked away._

Adric, and acceptance...

_"I have no family now."_

_ "Of course you have family!"_

_ The boy looked up questioningly, searching for hope, for reassurance. The Doctor smiled confidently._

_ "You have me."_

C'Rizz, and new beginnings...

_"I don't know who I am, what I'm capable of. But I do know that I'm going to change because that's what I do. How, I don't know. But I want to be with you."_

And Charley...

_ "Doctor, are you alright?"_

_ He sighed deeply as he raised a hand to gently brush her hair back from her forehead. Pressed against her body, he felt warmer than he had in years, in spite of the cool, heavy air. "Of course I am, Charley, I'm always alright."_

_ "You don't sound like it. You sound... disappointed." Her brow creased. "Are you? Disappointed?"_

_ "No, no, not disappointed. Not at all." He paused for a long moment, considering all that he was feeling, all that she made him feel. "To tell you the truth, Charley... I'm a bit scared."_

_ "Scared?" Clearly, she wasn't expecting that. "Of what?"_

_ "I've never been in love before," he admitted quietly. "Not like this. I mean, I've loved, true enough, but never with this sort of... depth. The kind of love that carries on, come ruin or rapture."_

_ "Well, that's a good feeling, though, isn't it?"_

_ "It is, Charley, but it's also a rather frightening one. Because I know I'll love you forever and for a Time Lord... forever is a very long time." _

The Doctor's vision was blurred with tears as it returned through the haze of memories. All of the happiest moments of his past lives, all at once. The joy of friendship and love and acceptance, of the smiles and laughter of children experiencing the universe for the first time. Somehow, in the midst of the pain over these past months, years, centuries, he had forgotten one of the most basic laws of the universe. That for every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. For every force, there was an equal and opposite force. And for every pain, there was an equal and opposite joy...

Julia was watching him curiously, patiently. Drawing in a quick breath, he wiped his eyes roughly with the heel of his palm before handing the bear back to her.

"Do you see now, my Doctor? Do you even realize all that you feel?"

He smiled as he blinked rapidly, and she smiled back. But unlike his, hers was a fake smile that felt nothing. She had never known what joy and fear and love felt like. She had learned about all those things, even seen them in action. But she had never truly felt them.

"Yes, Julia," he answered softly. "Thank you. I think I do see."

As the Doctor placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair, blinking away the last of his tears, he felt something new come over him, and take root deep in his chest. Dedication - love, even - for this child, and determination that he would somehow find a way for her to experience life the way he did. He didn't know how - not yet, anyway - but he wasn't content just to save her life now. He was going to save much more than that.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

"Doctor?"

Standing at the top of the staircase, Charley looked around the control room. But she didn't see him. The bits of the Tardis that had been strewn about earlier had been reassembled and Julia was sleeping in a curled little ball on the Doctor's easy chair. With all the interruptions over the past few hours of her sleep cycle, that was no surprise. Charley was tired herself, though she had finally managed to get a few hours of solid sleep in a bed that seemed far less comfortable now than she remembered it.

The Doctor's black leather jacket was draped through one of the pillars. He wouldn't have gone far without it, surely. Approaching the console, she noticed that they weren't in flight. After a quick look at the scanner and the atmosphere gauges, she made her way to the door and opened it slowly. Warm sunlight spilled into the dark room, blinding her for a moment, and she let her eyes adjust before she stepped out into the tall, brown grass. They were on a mountain, staring out over an endless range of hills spreading in every direction. Had they been on Earth, she would have expected to see snow this high up, would have expected the air to be thin. But they were not on Earth. If they had been, the sky would not have been yellow.

"Doctor?" Charley called again, closing the door behind her out of habit. She realized only after she'd done so that he'd better be out here. She wasn't sure she still had her key - and she certainly didn't have it on her.

She looked around, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. The scenery was a blend of yellows and browns, and the air carried the faint scent of cinnamon - or something like it. The sun was low on the horizon and it felt like dawn, not sunset. The breaking of a new day, the breeze warm and comfortable. Putting aside the caution that she had become so used to over the past few years, she took a few steps away from the Tardis. The Doctor wouldn't have parked them here if he didn't think they'd be safe for a little while, at least.

She found him sitting on a rock, close to the edge of the cliff. The sight of him made her do a double take. "Doctor, are you alright?"

He glanced over his shoulder at the sound of her voice and smiled. "Oh, hello Charley."

"Um... hello."

She had seen him without a shirt before, of course. It was nothing new and in most time periods, nothing particularly immodest. But it was also something he didn't ordinarily do. He rarely left the control room without his jacket, much less his shirt. Seeing him sitting there, quite calmly, in only a pair of jeans and black boots, with his hair cut short and his skin a bit paler than she remembered, was a bit jarring to her. Was he really the same man that she remembered? Did she even want him to be? Seven hundred years was an unfathomably long time...

"What are you doing out here?" She wanted to add "half dressed", but stopped herself. His state of dress was noticeable enough as it was.

"Doing? Oh, I'm not doing anything in particular," he answered comfortably as he glanced back out at the colors streaked across the sky, layer upon layer over top of the mountains. His voice was the same - confident and calm, the way it always was when he was pondering a problem that seemed impossible. She wondered what he was thinking about. She guessed that it was about Julia.

"It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Her eyes lingered on him for just a moment too long before following his gaze, out over the valley and the mountains beyond. The sun was just peeking up between the two in the center, bright red and glowing. "Yes," she agreed. "It is very beautiful."

"Is Julia still asleep?"

"Yes, quite peacefully, too, by the looks of it."

"And you? Did you manage to get a few hours?"

She stretched and rolled her neck. "Yes, though I don't remember that bed being so lumpy. I'm a bit stiff."

"Well, it hasn't been used in a few hundred years. I don't think I've even been in there for... I don't know how long."

She nodded absently as her eyes drifted back toward his shirtless form. Her mind flitted to all the times she'd seen him in various stages of undress. Not all of them had been romantic. She'd dressed his wounds and swam with him in the ocean. Once she'd seen him give his shirt and coat to a freezing man on the streets of a dying city. She had never loved him so much as in those moments of shockingly simple kindness...

"May I join you?" she asked, taking a hesitant step closer.

He glanced at her, as if surprised that she'd felt the need to ask. "Of course. I'd tell you to pull up a chair, but under the circumstances, I think a rock will have to suffice."

She laughed softly. "I'll make do."

Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he stared out again over the valley between them and the next mountain in silence. She had almost forgotten, lost in the memory of all the times he talked so much and so fast it was almost impossible to shut him up, how long he could simply sit in contemplative silence. It wasn't an awkward silence. He knew she was there, and he wasn't ignoring her. He was simply lost in thought.

By the time he finally spoke, the sun was quite a bit higher in the sky. "If you could save Julia from the Viyrans, but in doing so you'd take the risk that she might never be the same..." He turned to look at her pointedly. "Would you do it?"

She raised a brow, interested. "Does that mean you have a plan that involves more than simply running every time they get too close?"

"I might."

She waited for more, but he didn't offer. He was waiting for an answer to his question. She hesitated for a long moment to consider it carefully before finally replying. "I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'never be the same.'"

"I don't know," he answered honestly, almost contemplatively. "She might have a very different personality. She might have no memory of these past few years, or she might remember everything. She might look the same, or different. She might be intelligent, she might be healthy, or she might be mentally or chronically ill... I can't say for certain what I mean. She would be changed, for better or worse. But she would be alive."

She turned her gaze back out over the valley and took a deep breath, letting it out slow. "All I want is for her to be safe, Doctor," she finally said. "Alive and safe."

She could feel his eyes on her for a moment. Then he looked away again. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt her, Charley. You know that, right?"

"I know you won't, Doctor." She turned to look at him and smiled sadly. "But I also know you can't always stop it from happening."

He kept his eyes fixed on the horizon, but she saw his jaw twitch just slightly. She knew immediately that she'd cut him, and she shut her eyes as she cursed herself for it silently. She hadn't meant it that way.

"I suppose it's a good thing I'm used to doing things I can't do," he answered coolly, before she could retract.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't mean it like that."

He didn't respond, and she laid a hand gently on his arm.

"I trust you," she said softly. "I always have and always will."

"But?"

She hesitated, then sighed. "No. No 'buts'. It's just... this still feels like a dream in so many ways. I've been on my own for so long. I never thought I'd see you again."

"Again."

She blinked. "What?"

"We seem to keep bumping into each other, over and over, no matter how many times we part ways never expecting to see each other again."

It did seem a bit uncanny how many times they'd been rejoined. From the very start, it was as if the universe knew they ought to be together. As if Time were trying to correct itself...

"Is that such a bad thing?" she asked.

"I didn't say it was."

He smiled faintly back at her, but his eyes were sad. As her smile gradually fell, he sighed and looked back out over the scenery. "I've faced my share of people I can't protect, Charley," he admitted softly, his voice full of regret. "But your daughter isn't one of them. I'll see her safe. I only need to know how far you're willing to go to help me."

"To the ends of the universe and back, if that's what it takes," she said firmly.

"Good."

She frowned as she studied him for a moment, curiously. "Though it _would_ be nice to know what you have in mind."

He didn't answer, only sat very still and stared out at the shadows cast by the sun behind the mountains. The planet was waking up, the sounds of wildlife beginning to chirp and hum and echo in the caverns around them. Realizing he had no intention of answering the implied question, she looked back out over the horizon, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of a new planet. An involuntary smile crept across her face.

"You know what, Doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"I've really missed this."

He glanced at her curiously.

"Just being able to sit and enjoy my surroundings without having to worry about who might be lurking about. A new planet, miles from anyone. Where are we, anyway?"

"Somewhere in the Questra system. I actually don't know the name of this planet. It might not even have a name. It's still new, only a million years old or so, when that sun explodes." He nodded to the sun in the sky. "Those sounds are the most advanced form of life within five hundred light years. They'll never be properly discovered and catalogued..."

"Except by you," she teased lightly.

"Cataloging is a job for the Time Lords," he answered with distaste. "I gave up on that centuries ago. If you can't see it and taste it and touch it, _experience _it, what's the point of knowing it exists?"

He stood and crossed carefully on the uneven ground to the tree that was jutting out of the rocks. Testing its strength, he braced against it and pulled himself up, onto the lowest limbs. With the ease of his climbing, one would think he'd been made for it. It took her a moment to realize what he was after - some sort of fruit at the top of the tree. Bracing himself against the trunk, he reached out, grabbed one of the branches, pulled off one of the brown balls about the size of his fist, then held it at arm's length, calling, "Catch, Charley!" before he dropped it.

She barely had time to stand up and catch it before it landed on her head. Breathing deeply, she realized this was where the cinnamon smell was coming from. Smiling, she watched him climb back down with ease, another piece of fruit in his hand.

"Do you think it's safe to eat?"

"How should I know? I'm as new to this planet as you are."

His voice had that teasing tone, his eyes sparkling. He smiled at her before peeling a bit of the skin back from the soft, white inside of the fruit. He smelled it, then touched his tongue to it. "Hmm. Not bad."

He peeled some more of it and took a small bite. She laughed and shook her head as she followed suit. The fruit was tangy with a bit of sweetness and quite juicy. "Mmm this is amazing!"

He smiled, and she gasped with laughter as she tried to catch the juice that dribbled down her chin with her hand. She didn't quite succeed, and it ended up on her shirt. "Oh, Mother would be positively mortified," she laughed, flicking the juice off her hand and trying to smear it off her chin. "I can almost hear her now. 'Charlotte Ellsworth Pollard, I did not raise my girls to eat from a trough!'"

The Doctor laughed with her and, having somehow managed to keep his fruit from exploding everywhere, held it aside as he rubbed his thumb against her jaw to clean up a few drops she'd missed. She froze at the unexpected touch, not sure if he meant it to be as intimate as it felt. Maybe it _wasn't _as intimate as it felt. It was hard to tell, when she had lived so many years almost completely void of physical contact with another being. Those years had made her realize, with agonizing clarity, just how much human beings needed to touch and to be touched.

Her breath caught as her eyes met his. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ever so casually, as if he hadn't a clue that his gesture had even been noticed, he licked the juice from his fingers before falling back against the tree and continuing to eat his own. She watched him for a moment, brow furrowed just slightly at her own reaction. It shouldn't have meant anything. Clearly he hadn't meant anything by it. He was oblivious as usual, sucking at the fruit, tipping his head back to keep it from spilling. She smiled in spite of herself, but her smile fell in the silence that followed.

Her eyes trailed down, landing on his bare chest and the many scars he'd accumulated. Scars she quite vividly remembered the cause of, especially the one in the middle. The one she'd given him. Her gaze lingered there, and finally, she reached out to hesitantly touch him, as if to reassure herself that what she was looking at was real.

He didn't even seem to notice her touch until he'd finished his fruit and tossed aside the skin of it. But then, she had his attention. Brow raised curiously, he watched her as he licked his sticky fingers again. She quickly pulled her hand away as she realized she had his attention. Instinctively, she moved back, feeling like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I was doing that."

"Sorry? Why?" He paused for a moment, then smiled knowingly. "I've gone swimming in oceans of sugar water. Sticky hands don't bother me."

She blushed, and looked away. Fond memories - amazing memories - of swimming in sugar water and lying naked under the stars came flooding back. A small smile played on her lips as she remembered their first proper kiss, and the shocking, amazing moments that had followed. She had known from the moment he'd touched her, the way that only lovers touch in the dark, that she would never forget that night. Not in a million years...

He smiled at her blush - she could feel the smile more than see it - and gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist. Slowly, as if waiting for any sign of resistance, he pulled her hand close again, resting it against his chest, tracing his fingers with hers along the deep scar between his hearts.

Her breath caught in her throat and she was sure her wildly beating heart could be heard across the whole planet. Her mind was swimming. Only yesterday, or as close as one got to it in the Tardis, she thought him long dead. But here he was, very much alive. And shirtless. A small part of her brain was still pondering why he wasn't wearing a shirt. That part was quickly being shoved out by much more detailed thoughts on the matter. She moved just slightly closer to him as she splayed her hand in the middle of his chest.

His hand left hers resting there and he reached up, brushing his fingertips lightly along her jaw. He didn't speak, only watched her with that curious, questioning look. Then, finally, he moved a hand back into her hair, tipped her head down, and kissed her forehead softly before wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight.

His embrace was startling for a moment, so tight she could hardly breathe, as if he never wanted to let her go. Finally dropping the long-forgotten fruit in her hand, she wrapped her free arm around him and rested her head on his chest, the sound of his double heartbeat still soothing after all this time.

"Charley? May I ask you something?" His grip didn't loosen as he spoke, into her hair.

"Anything, Doctor."

He hesitated only for a moment, turning his head to nuzzle her gently before he whispered again, quietly. "When you think of me, when you thought of me, all those years... what did you think of?"

"Lots of things," she said softly, smiling as she nuzzled against his chest. "Far off planets. The past. The future. Daleks and Cybermen and Vortisaurs. A universe with no time."

"Not the most pleasant memories."

She laughed softly. "That depends on how you remember them." She turned her head and looked up at him as best she could. "I thought of a man - a wonderful, amazing, impossible man - always dressed out of time but always blending in. A man who could not only laugh in the face of danger, but gladly taunted it, pushed its buttons. A man who made me laugh and cry and feel... everything in between. I thought of my best friend. And how terribly I missed him."

"I thought of this," he whispered, finding her hand again and placing it against his chest, against the deep scar there.

Startled, she pulled away enough to blink up at him in confusion. Talk about unpleasant memories. "You thought of me _stabbing _you?"

He laughed quietly, and moved his other hand from her back to her hair. "I thought of the bravest woman I've ever known," he whispered as his fingers traced along the side of her face, her jaw, the side of her neck. "The woman who could do what I never could. You loved me enough to trust me even when it broke your heart."

"Oh." She lowered her eyes to study the scar beneath her fingertips. "Oh, I see."

"You killed for me, I died for you, and you followed me right into death. It's almost... poetic."

She laughed softly. "Shakespeare would be impressed."

"And in the end, even when it hurt to think of you, even in those times when I've felt cold and alone," he tipped his head forward until his forehead gently bumped hers, and she raised her eyes, "I have never forgotten that I had the privilege of making love to the most beautiful creature in all of space and time. The woman I loved more than life itself. You, Charley."

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she swallowed hard. She hadn't expected to hear all of that, and if she was honest, "I... I don't even know what to say, Doctor."

"You don't have to say anything. But know this." He sighed as he pulled away from her, leaning back again. "I'm going to fix everything that's wrong with your daughter, Charley. And when I do, I'm not going to let either of you go."


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

"Well, ordinarily, Doctor, I would say that I enjoy a challenge. But you pose a problem far beyond my level of expertise."

"But you will try," the Doctor prodded.

The man hesitated a moment in his response, but not in his step. Hunched and bearded, with long gray hair and gnarled fingers, the man looked much older than he was. By human standards, he probably would've been nearing a hundred. In his own race, the crippled-looking man was at the peak of his lifetime performance. He was far healthier than he looked. He kept perfect pace with the Doctor, though his walk was more of a shuffle, as they walked down the sterile white hallway to where the Doctor had parked the Tardis.

"Hmm, yes." His voice sounded old as well, crackly and over-used. "Yes, I do think so. The Time Lords have been very good to us. And none so good as you. If there is anything that I can do, I will certainly try."

The two of them rounded the corner of the long, white corridor just as Charley stepped out of the Tardis, holding Julia's hand. The little girl was smiling politely, but Charley looked worried. The fact that the man beside the Doctor appeared as non-threatening as the average great-grandfather on Earth seemed not to console her much.

"Is this the child?"

At that, Charley's grip tightened on Julia's hand. She even took a tiny step back against the Tardis. The Doctor stepped forward, placing himself between the two of them and the unfamiliar man. "Charley, Julia, this is Dr. T'Lestacropholiax."

"T'Lest," he corrected with a smile. "Please. No need to be formal."

Charley relaxed slightly, adjusting slowly to her surroundings and to the man standing in front of her. Her eyes were darting, checking for exits and planning escape strategies. The Doctor smiled as he took a step closer to her and set a hand on her arm. She jumped at the touch, and her eyes darted to him. Then she seemed to realize how tightly she was holding Julia.

"T'Lest, this is my friend Charley and her daughter Julia."

The man knelt with some difficulty, wobbling back and forth a few times before he settled, crouched, on the balls of his feet. Charley's wariness flickered to curiosity for a moment. Old and unsteady as he looked, he had impeccable balance once he'd settled.

"Hello, Julia."

"Hello, Dr. T'Lest."

Julia stepped forward, pulling her hand away from Charley. Startled, Charley didn't tighten her grip again quickly enough to keep the girl at her side, and she opened her mouth to protest as Julia stepped in closer to the man. But the Doctor's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Shh, Charley, let her go," he whispered without taking his eyes off of the two of them.

"How well do you know him?" Charley whispered back.

"Just met him."

"Then how do you know you can trust him?"

The Doctor turned and smiled at her. "You know, Charley, paranoia doesn't much suit you," he teased.

She scowled back. "It's kept me alive."

He turned his head and lowered his voice to a whisper into Charley's ear, but never looked away as the old man and the little girl touched fingertips. "The Boraeli are some of the most brilliant genetic engineers in the entire universe," he explained. "It's said that they were the consultants for the original prototype of the loom that every Time Lord is created on."

Charley frowned. "I thought Rassilon made that."

"Rassilon conceived of the idea, but he didn't know how to create it. He wasn't a genetic engineer; he was a politician."

"And inventor." Charley's eyes narrowed as Julia touched T'Lest's forehead gently, and he reached up to touch some sort of pen device to hers. "I saw his foundry, remember."

"Oh, I remember. I saw it too. And I'm not saying he wasn't a brilliant man, but no man is perfectly adept at everything. His inventions were technological in nature, not biological. Not genetic."

"He gave the Time Lords the ability to regenerate; how is that not biological?"

"He conceived of the idea. Given his rise to universal power, don't you think he had any one of a million races willing to help?"

Julia giggled and Charley blinked, startled. T'Lest laughed quietly, too. Whatever secret amusement they were sharing, it made Charley's eyes grow wide. "Doctor, did she just... laugh?"

The Doctor smiled. "I think she did."

"Side effect," T'Lest explained, rising again and ruffling the little girl's hair. He held up the pen. "It stimulates the categorical neurotransmitters in her brain. It's a very crude diagnostic method, but it's quite harmless, I assure you."

"Diagnostic method?"

T'Lest smiled reassuringly at Charley. "I'd like to run some further tests, if that's alright with you. Before I commit to an outcome of such a revolutionary nature, I'd like to see if I even _can _help you. I certainly don't want to cause any damage to your little girl if I can't."

Charley nodded slowly. "I... Yes. Yes, of course."

"You can be with her the entire time if you'd like."

Julia was smiling. She took a step forward as Charley glanced down at her, and slipped her tiny hand into her mother's. "It's alright, Mum," she said brightly. "It doesn't hurt. And I like Dr. T'Lest."

Charley smiled faintly, and gave a half-laugh, half-sigh before exchanging glances with the Doctor. Her instinct told her to run, to hide from anyone who looked too long at Julia, let alone subjected her to medical tests. But she trusted the Doctor, and she already knew where the running led. At the end of the escape, there was only more running. And sooner or later, the Viyrans would catch up.

"Will these tests hurt?" she asked.

T'Lest shook his head. "No. I assure you, she will be completely comfortable."

Charley's smile relaxed, and she nodded as she squeezed Julia's hand, then urged her forward, toward T'Lest. "Alright, then. Go on. We'll be right behind you."

Julia beamed, and took the old man's hand, turning to walk with him down the hallway at a slow, shuffling pace. When they were only a few paces ahead, Charley felt a new hand slip over hers - the Doctor's, warm and reassuring.

"Thank you, Charley."

She looked at him in confusion. "For what?"

He smiled back as he gave her hand a quick squeeze. "For trusting me."

"Trusting you isn't the hard part, Doctor," she answered quietly, lowering her eyes. "The hard part is not knowing how far away the Viyrans are right now."

*X*X*X*

"Doctor!" The woman who greeted them outside of the medical bay looked younger than T'Lest, but not by much. "What a pleasure to see you again!"

"C'Ronal," the Doctor answered with a smile, raising a hand to touch fingertips with her in greeting. "I was hoping I might see you here. This is my friend Charley. Charley, this is C'Ronal. She and I did some work together a very long time ago."

"Pleasure to meet you," Charley said with a polite smile.

"And you."

There was no more time for exchange of pleasantries before T'Lest stepped out of the room where Julia was lying quite contently on the examining table, on her stomach with a pen and tablet in front of her. T'Lest smiled in greeting, and cast a glance through the window at the little girl happily kicking her feet in the air.

"The results from the DNA analysis," C'Ronal offered, touching her pen to the flat, handheld screen T'Lest was holding.

"Thank you."

"Would you like me to stay with her while you discuss the results with the Doctor and Charley?"

Charley frowned. "What results?"

"Actually, C'Ronal, I'd like you to come with us. Your input may be most valuable and Julia is quite safe where she is."

"Perhaps we should sit in the lounge," C'Ronal suggested pleasantly.

"Yes, that sounds lovely." As T'Lest looked up briefly from his flat screen, he laughed softly at the look of worry on Charley's face. "It's quite alright, Ms. Pollard. We'll not be far."

Charley forced a smile in answer. "I know. But the last time I took my eyes off her, she ended up with a bounty hunter."

T'Lest nodded sympathetically. "I understand you've had quite a time trying to avoid those who would seek to harm your daughter. But she is perfectly safe here."

"Can't she come with us?"

"I'm afraid we're still gathering some readings on her brain activity," T'Lest answered. "But you're welcome to stay with her if you'd prefer."

Charley hesitated a moment longer. Her instinct, bred into her by years on the run, told her not to leave. But her curiosity had the better of her. She wanted to know what it was they'd found, if they thought they could help. She nodded as she took a deep breath.

"Alright. I'll come with you."

The Doctor was a step in front of her as they followed T'Lest and C'Ronal into a small room with a simple table and chairs. T'Lest waited until they were all seated, barely taking his eyes off of his screen until finally, he looked up and straight at the Doctor.

"Your initial proposition grows more and more complicated by the moment," he said with a furrowed brow.

"What initial proposition?" Charley demanded, glancing at the Doctor.

"The Boraeli were the original engineers of a device called a chameleon arch," the Doctor explained. "Every Tardis is equipped with one. It rewrites the genetic code of a Time Lord to turn him or her into a human."

Charley blinked, startled. But the implication sunk in before she had a chance to ask what use a Time Lord would ever have for such a device. "And you suggested that it might be used to turn Julia into a human."

"The suggestion holds merit," T'Lest said. "The chameleon arch has been adapted for use by a number of races."

"None of which are even remotely similar to Julia," C'Ronal added.

"Well, they wouldn't be," the Doctor answered. "She's unique. I told you that."

T'Lest laughed softly. "And right you are, too."

"But the human part of her DNA is taken completely from Charley," the Doctor continued. "One hundred percent. You have a model for what she should be."

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple."

"Why not?"

T'Lest hesitated a moment. "There are parts of her brain that are completely missing, Doctor. Almost as if they've been surgically removed."

The Doctor frowned. "Could they have been? Surgically removed?"

"Oh, I don't know. Such a thing is beyond our science."

"Beyond your science?" Charley asked warily. "I thought you were the leading medical science authority of the universe."

T'Lest gave a nervous laugh. "You flatter us, Ms. Pollard. But I'm afraid medical science is far too broad a term to describe our area of expertise."

"We are pre-formative geneticists," C'Ronal explained. "We can alter the genetic code of a living thing. We can create a living thing designed to precise genetic specifications. In most recent years, we can even transpose the consciousness of a living thing into a synthetic host. But brain surgery? Repair to a living tissue? This is not our field."

"When you say parts of her brain are missing," the Doctor said, brow furrowed as he lost himself in thought, "how relevant is that?"

T'Lest raised a brow. "I'd say it's quite relevant."

"What I mean is, when the chameleon arch rewrites a Time Lord's DNA, we lose a heart, we lose our telepathic ability, we lose everything that is not human because the new genetic code is a complete blueprint of how we're supposed to look."

"Yes," T'Lest granted. "And it is possible that the process would work much the same way for her."

The hesitation, the implied "but", made the Doctor eye T'Lest warily. "But?" he finally prodded.

"But it might also consider the lack of pre-existing material a lack of necessity."

"It could leave her brain dead," C'Ronal said plainly.

Charley's eyes widened. "Brain dead?"

"I told you that the chameleon arch has been used for other races," T'Lest explained. "But it has only ever worked successfully in instances where the species being altered is of higher evolutionary origin than a human. It can take _away _unneeded functions and genetic information - your telepathic abilities, your second heart and respiratory bypass - but we have never successfully managed to grant human evolutionary standing to a lower species."

"Though, with that said," C'Ronal continued, "there is a theory we have been working on for several years now -"

"Untested," T'Lest interjected.

"- which supplies the brain's functions through human race memory."

Charley frowned. "Race memory," she said. "Like the Wirrn?"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to stare. "You've met the Wirrn?"

She smiled softly. "I've met a lot of races, Doctor, since we parted ways."

"Human race memory is not so intricate," T'Lest answered her. "But it does exist. That has been known for some time now."

"Any number of studies traced the obesity epidemic of the early 21st century to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Survivors children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren gorged themselves in subconscious memory of their ancestors' starvation."

"What's the theory?" the Doctor asked.

"We believe that there's a chance for an inherent memory of -"

Suddenly, the door burst open. A young boy, no older than ten, stumbled into the room. "T'Lest! Doctor! I've been sent from the Aperture." He was out of breath, doubled over and holding his knees. "There's... There's a ship in the sky! And they're broadcasting on all channels."

"The Viyrans," Charley whispered with dread.

The boy nodded, "Yes. Yes, Ma'am. They are."

The Doctor was up and out of his seat in a flash. "This theory," he said quickly, eyes fixed on T'Lest, "if it doesn't work, is it reversible?"

T'Lest nodded. "I should think so."

"Then get to work on it. But don't do _anything _until I get back. Charley, stay with Julia. Don't let her out of your sight."

"What?"

But he didn't answer. He was already out the door.

"Where are you going?" Charley demanded as she sprang up and after him, following hot on his heels as he walked quickly down the hallway.

"I'm going to have a little chat with our friends up there."

"Doctor, you can't!"

"Well, I'd say I haven't got much of a choice. Besides, if they're willing to come all the way out here themselves instead of sending someone else to do their dirty work -"

He cut off as she grabbed his arm with a tight grip and jerked him to a halt, stepping in front of him. "Doctor, they'll kill you."

He was still for a moment, staring at her. Her tone was almost a plea, begging him to run, to avoid this danger rather than face it. She'd seen what the Viyrans could do, what they _would _do. The Tardis was just down the hall; why didn't they simply run? She had been running for so long, she hardly knew how to do anything else. And the last thing she wanted was to see him dead.

But then, suddenly, his hand was in her hair and her lips were crushed against his. She wasn't sure why, but she wasn't startled. And she wasn't surprised when he pulled away, stepped around her, and kept right on walking.

"Tell T'Lest you need a duplicate biosynthetic implant from Julia," he ordered, over his shoulder. "And don't let her out of your sight!"

Without another word, he was gone, leaving her standing, bewildered, in the center of the hallway.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

"Hello up there!"

Standing in the middle of the street, yelling up at the sky, the Doctor looked half-mad to the passers by. There was nothing in the sky, after all. Nothing they could see, though a few of them looked. He didn't seem to notice. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he yelled louder as if the gods might hear him if he just called loud enough.

"Hello! Can you hear me? I'm the Doctor, though I'm pretty sure you already know that. I'd like to talk to you! A little matter of a child we both have a vested interest in." He paused just briefly, eyes darting over the clouds. But nothing changed, nothing moved. A gentle breeze swept past, and he took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyone home? Hello up -"

The transmat was so sudden, he didn't even have a chance to feel the air around him charge. Like flipping a light switch, his surroundings changed from the brightly lit street to the dim interior of the Viyran ship. He couldn't help a moment of disorientation, blinking at his hosts in frank shock. But he quickly shook it off, and smiled congenially.

"Ah, thank you."

"You are the Doctor?"

Telepathic. He sensed immediately that the voice he heard in his head belonged to one or all of the three beings in front of him.

"Yes, that's me," he answered. "And you're the Viyrans, I presume."

The creatures appeared to be basically humanoid, though a good two feet taller than the Doctor at least. Their features were indistinguishable beneath their bulky white hazmat suits. With no faces and no voices of their own, they seemed very... distant.

"Supposedly, I had any number of encounters with you at one point or another," the Doctor said warily, checking his mind's defenses to make sure that they would not get through. Thankfully, they didn't seem to be trying very hard. "Though I'm having some difficulty remembering you. I assume that was your doing?"

"If you are the Doctor, where is your Tardis?"

"Oh, she's down there," he said, stepping forward comfortably. "Safely tucked away on the planet below."

"Why, then, must you rely on our means to transport you onboard? You could have come in your own vessel."

"I could have," he agreed with some hesitation. "But I didn't exactly want to approach uninvited. I thought it entirely possible that if I did, you'd blow my Tardis halfway into the next galaxy and I really did just want to come up here for a friendly chat. A neutral, pre-battle conference, as it were."

"There is to be no battle. You will give us 4-1-6 and we will leave."

"4-1-6," the Doctor repeated. "Would that be Charley or her daughter?"

For a moment, they seemed caught off guard. Then they responded - collectively, it seemed, since their body language gave no indication which of them were talking - with patience. "You misinterpret the relationship between the human Charley and 4-1-6."

"Explain it to me."

"4-1-6 is not a human. It is not a child. It is not a proper life form."

"I'm fairly certain we can agree to disagree on that last point. I've seen her, talked to her. She possesses independent thought which makes her not only a proper life form, but a sophisticated one."

"You are wrong, Doctor. 4-1-6 possesses the capability to feedback loop diagnostic information. This is simply part of its conditioning. It must be able to communicate socially with its intended patient."

"However she communicates, the fact that she's _able _to communicate says something in and of itself. And incidentally, did you happen to cut out pieces of her brain while she was up here with you?"

"That would have been a pointless action. Anything we did not wish to implant in her brain, we simply did not implant."

"4-1-6 has been located in the central complex, 392 sectrons below at coordinates 20-A, 3391-galian."

"Transmat the entity onboard."

"No, wait!"

But the Doctor was too late, and the instant the Viyran at the controls engaged the transmat, the little girl stood before them.

*X*X*X*

"You shouldn't worry, Mum."

Those had been the last words she'd said. With that perfect, fake smile and the kind of calm that would have left the Greek stoics in awe, she had spoken her assurance, and then disappeared into thin air. Charley was trying hard not to hyperventilate as she played back the last few seconds over and over again. A teleport of some kind. They had taken her...

"Here you are, Charley."

C'Ronal placed a steaming cup of tea into her shaking hands and she tried to still them to keep from burning herself. With a soft, reassuring smile, C'Ronal sat down beside her on the exam table that Julia had been happily perched on just moments before.

"She'll be alright, you know," C'Ronal said quietly. "She's with the Doctor."

Charley took a deep breath, and a slow, careful sip from her cup. She didn't have the words to describe how frantic she would have felt if she _didn't _know that to be true. Wherever Julia was, the Doctor had gone ahead of her. He'd gone to face the Viyrans. He would protect her.

"How do you know the Doctor?" C'Ronal asked, trying to redirect her thoughts.

Charley took another shaky breath, and pushed a hand through her hair before wrapping both around the cup, cradling it in her lap. "I used to travel with him," she finally answered.

"That must have been very exciting."

She nodded slowly. "It was."

"I have never left B'Rola. But someday, perhaps I will."

Charley looked at her. "How...?" She wasn't sure whether it was a rude question or not, but her curiosity had the better of her. "How old are you?"

C'Ronal smiled. "I'm twenty-two."

Charley stared, and the old woman's smile turned to a laugh.

"Yes, I know. To you, I look very old. But things are not always as they seem."

"That's like Julia." Charley looked away. "She's anything but a three year old child."

C'Ronal placed a hand on Charley's arm, comfortingly. "She will be alright, Charley. If you traveled with the Doctor, you must know he will protect her."

"I know," Charley answered shakily, taking another deep breath. "I just wish they'd taken me, too."

*X*X*X*

"Initiate scan."

"Why bother?" the Doctor asked. "All you have to do is look at her. You can see she's the same little girl."

Julia stood staring at them, unstartled by her sudden shift in environment. The Doctor thought for a moment that they might have somehow incapacitated her, but soon saw her eyes were open when she ventured a calm look around. She didn't speak to them and they didn't speak to her as their systems scanned her with softly glowing lights.

"Identity confirmed. Subject 4-1-6 present and accounted for."

"So what happens now?" the Doctor demanded.

"Subject 4-1-6 will present for termination."

"Termination!"

"It will be completely painless."

"Painless? Don't you have to be a proper life form to feel pain?"

"Precisely. Pain is a concept with which the subject is unfamiliar."

"Listen to me," the Doctor said, stepping in closer. He took Julia by the shoulder and gently pulled her behind him. "This little girl is not just one of your cures to be discarded and reattempted if she doesn't work!"

"No. She is the virus."

"You created her!"

"We have created many viruses in attempts to cure those more dangerous."

"She's not a virus or a cure; she's a child!"

"4-1-6 is a medical experiment."

"A _genetic _experiment. Using DNA that you obtained from Charley Pollard. That means some part of her is human."

"That human DNA was instrumental in the experiments which produced the subject does not make it human."

"What if I could makeher human?"

The Viyrans hesitated. Though they had no visible eyes, he was sure they were staring at him.

"You don't want _her_; you just want to make sure she's not used to wreak havoc all over the seven galaxies - a reasonable and commendable effort, as far as I'm concerned. So what if she posed no threat? Completely human, three-years-old, no memory of any of this. A complete change in her physiology would eliminate whatever she might be infected with, and she'd be harmless."

Another long moment of hesitation. He continued, sensing their reluctance to even consider the idea.

"What if she thought like a child, was _scared_ like a child, cried! The way that I'm sure her mother's doing right now. Would you kill her then? Would you murder her if she did feel pain?"

"She poses a threat. Our mission is to eliminate that threat."

"Would she still pose a threat if she were completely human?"

"You have not the technology to accomplish this."

"But suppose I did." He stepped forward, eagerly. "Suppose you give me twenty-onehours - one B'Rolan day - and I come back. Voluntarily, of my own free will; you won't have to chase me down. If I've failed, if she's not completely and totally human, I hand her over to you and you'll never hear from me again but if I _succeed_..." His eyes darted back and forth over all of them, reading their reactions as well as he was able in their faceless mechanical bodies. "You hand her over to me. You get out of her life, out of Charley's life. Withdraw the bounty and accept that neither of them pose any further threat to you or anyone else in the universe."

Another moment of silence. The Viyrans turned, presumably to discuss the proposition. The Doctor waited, and reached down to hold out a hand to Julia. She took his hand and stepped beside him, still looking around her with apparent curiosity.

"Doctor?" she asked quietly.

He glanced down at her. "Yes, Julia?"

"Do the Viyrans want to hurt my mother?"

"In a manner of speaking," he answered. "But don't you worry. I'm not going to let that happen."

"Doctor." The Viyrans' suits made a sound that was somewhere between mechanical and biological as they turned. "We accept your proposal with certain conditions."

"What conditions?"

"You have one hour to produce a result that we deem acceptable."

His eyes widened. "One hour?"

"This is all the time we can afford to spare on the matter of 4-1-6's resolution."

The Doctor took a deep, calming breath, and nodded. "Fine. One hour, then. Anything else?"

"During this hour, you are prohibited from accessing your Tardis."

"Now wait a minute," he hesitated. "You can't restrict _my _travel. Julia's, maybe, but what threat do I pose to you?"

"Your Tardis is a time and space ship. Should you violate our agreement, we do not wish to chase you again."

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "If I simply wanted to outrun you, you wouldn't have found me here," he said coolly. "Besides, my Tardis is more than that. It's my home, my laboratory, my medical center. I'll need access to it. Particularly if I have to complete my work in a single hour!"

"This cuff is coded to the life signs and genetic structure of subject 4-1-6," the Viyran informed, producing a small gold-colored bracelet. He waved slightly in Julia's general direction, and she held out her arm in front of her to accept the device as it clasped around her, in spite of the Doctor's protests.

"What is it _for_?" he demanded. "If it's going to interfere with my methods..."

"It is a transmitting device, nothing more. It will syncopate with the biosynthetic implant of 4-1-6 to ensure that the subject remains on the planet below, and will alert us of any change in her physiology should your methods be successful."

"And then what?"

"Then you will again be brought onboard our ship and we will run a full range of tests to ensure that 4-1-6 poses no continuing threat. If 4-1-6 leaves B'Rola, we will consider the terms of our agreement null and void and the cuff will release a poison that will neutralize all biological entities on a cellular level."

"In other words, you'll kill her."

"If the bracelet is removed, this will also constitute a violation of our agreement and 4-1-6 will be immediately brought onboard and dispersed in accordance with our proper procedures. Are these terms acceptable to you?"

The Doctor glared back at them for a moment, then cast a glance down at the child standing at his side, looking around with calm amusement at the interior of the Viyran ship. He wasn't about to hand her over to them. And nothing they had said had come as a tremendous shock to him. One hour or twenty-one, it was still an impossibility. And he had assumed they'd have some way of keeping her from running away again. He was playing a game of chess with an opponent who knew full well how to maneuver his pieces. It almost made the Doctor smile. It had been a while since he'd engaged in this type of high stakes battle of pre-emptive strikes and predictive guesswork.

"Alright," he answered solemnly. Taking Julia's hand, his fingers brushed the warm metal bracelet that threatened her life now. "I accept."


End file.
